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NO FELLOWSHIP 



WITH 



ROMANISM. 

BY ENOCH POND, 

PROFESSOR IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, BANGOR. 



M Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her 
sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." 



WRITTEN FOR THE MASS, SABBATH SCHOOL SOCIETY, AND RE- 
VISED BY THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION. 



BOSTON: 

MASSACHUSETTS SABBATH SCHOOL SOCIETY, 
Depository, No. 13 Cornhill. 

1 843. 




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by 

CHRISTOPHER C. DEAN, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



5 



« » \ » 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



My object in the following treatise is to convey to 
my countrymen, — and more especially to the younger 
portion of them, — in a plain, popular, readable form, 
some general idea of Romanism, — as it has existed in 
other ages, and as it exists, substantially, at the 
present time. This system of error, I am persuaded, 
is the grand enemy, with which the church of Christ 
on earth is to have its last struggle, — at least, for a 
long period of time ; and when this falls, the reign of 
righteousness, it may be hoped, will speedily com- 
mence. I am moreover convinced that a desperate 
effort is to be made to garnish over this horrid and 
bloody system, and, trking advantage of our univer- 
sal suffrage and unrestricted liberty, to force it upon 
the American people. It is high time, therefore, 
that the eyes of this people were open to the system 
itself, and that. they were enabled to see it in its true 
colors ; that they may not be deceived by smooth 
words and false pretences, and snared to their tem- 
poral and eternal ruin. 



iv 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



In the following pages, I have written plainly, but 
not angrily. I have endeavored to expose faithfully 
(so far as my limits would allow), the errors, super- 
stitions, and abominations of Popery; but with no 
feelings but those of kindness and pity for that un- 
happy portion of my fellow-men, who were born to 
the inheritance of this wretched religion, and know 
no other way to heaven. The Lord have mercy upon 
them, and speedily deliver them ! 

The facts stated in this work, and the quotations 
made, may all be relied on as correct ; though I have 
not thought it necessary to burthen my page with a 
multitude of references. If any fact of importance 
shall be seriously disputed, I hold myself bound, either 
to substantiate it, or retract it. 

That the great Head of the church may be pleased 
to follow with his blessing this humble effort to expose 
and subvert a most dangerous system of delusion and 
error, to disseminate truth, and hasten the triumphs 
of his own kingdom on the earth, is the author's most 
earnest desire and prayer. 

Theological Seminary, Bangor, > 
Feb. 7, 1843. \ 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

PAGE. 

Early history of the Church of Rome — Its character 
and form of government — Its government changed — 
Rise, growth, and consummation of the Papacy — Ob- 
ject of the work stated, . . . .9 

CHAPTER I. 

First reason why Christians should have no fellowship 
with the church of Rome — Her ecclesiastical consti- 
tution entirely unscriptural — Arguments for the supre- 
macy of the Pope considered and refuted — Considera- 
tions urged against it, 20 

CHAPTER II. 



Second reason why Christians should have no fellow- 
ship with Rome — Her corrupt doctrines, . . 58 



Vi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

PAGE. 

Third reason why Christians should have no fellowship 
with Rome — Her principles of morality — No faith 
with heretics — The end sanctifies the means — The 
obligation of oaths dispensed with — Illustrations of 
Jesuitical morality, 66 

C H APTER IV. 

Fourth reason why Christians should have no fellowship 
with Rome — Her authorized and detestable super- 
stitions — Those connected with the Sacraments — 
Saints — Relics — Pictures — Penances — Holy water — 
Charms — Festivals, &c 81 



CHAPTER V. 

Fifth reason why Christians should have no fellowship 
with Rome — Her corrupt and pernicious practices — 
The characters of her Popes and clergy — Opposition to 
the Bible — Prayers only in an unknown tongue — 
Monasticism — Frauds and Impositions — Auricular 
Confession, Absolution, Indulgences, &c. — Idolatries 
Profanation of Churches — Excommunications — Op- 
position to learning, &c 107 

CHAPTER VI. 

Sixth reason why Christians should have no fellowship 
with Rome — Her dangerous political pretensions, and 
numerous and murderous political intrigues, . . 154 



CONTENTS. 



vii 



CHAPTER VTI. 

PAGE. 

Seventh reason why the people of God should have 
no fellowship with Rome — Her long continued and 
terrible persecutions — The right of persecution as- 
serted — The inquisition — Crusades — Persecutions 
in England, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Italy, the 
.Netherlands, France — Persecutions of Jews, and 

Moors — Rome still claims the right of persecu- 
tion 165 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Eighth reason why the people of God should have no 
fellowship with Rome — The manner in which she is 
regarded and spoken of in the Scriptures. In Dan. 7 : 
8, 20—25. In 2 Thess. 2 : 3— 10. In Rev. 13th and 
17th chapters, 197 

CHAPTER IX. 

Ninth reason why the people of God should have no fel- 
lowship with the church of Rome — The opinions 
which have been entertained by wise and good men 
respecting it, 222 



CHAPTER X. 



Tenth reason why the people of God should have no fel- 
lowship with Rome — Her present hostility to the 
church, and its efforts for the heathen, . . . 226 



viii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XI. 

PAGE. 

Eleventh and last reason why the people of God should 
have no fellowship with the church of Rome — Her 
terrible end, 231 

Conclusion, 237 

Appendix, » ♦ 241 



NO FELLOWSHIP 
WITH ROMANISM. 



INTRODUCTION. 

Early history of the Church of Rome — Its character and 
form of government — Its government changed — Rise, 
growth, and consummation of the Papacy — Object of the 
work stated* 

Respecting the first planting of Christ- 
ianity at Rome, and the persons by whom it 
was originally preached, authentic history has 
given us no information. We only know 
that there were Christians in this great me- 
tropolis of the world, and that the foundations 
of a Christian church were laid, at a very 
early period. The pretence of modern Ro- 
manists, that Peter was the founder of their 
church, is without any sufficient support, 
either from sacred or profane history. 
2 



10 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



Among the multitudes assembled at Jeru- 
salem on the day of Pentecost, there were 
" strangers of Rome, Jews and Proselytes." 
It is not improbable that some of these 
" strangers from Rome " were among the 
converts ; and that when they returned to 
their own city, they carried the light of sal- 
vation with them. Certain it is, that when 
Paul w T rote his epistle to the Romans (about 
A. D. 57), between twenty and thirty years 
subsequent to the Pentecost revival, there 
was a large and flourishing church at Rome, 
which he had never visited, and which at that 
time seems not to have been visited by any 
of the apostles. 

The church of Rome, at the first, was a 
holy church, aes much so as any then existing 
in the world. Paul addresses the members 
of it as " beloved of God, called to be saints 
and in attestation of the vigor of their piety, 
adds, " your faith is spoken of throughout the 
whole world." 

This church was originally governed, like 
all the primitive churches, by several joint 
bishops or presbyters, these terms being used 



WITH ROMANISM. 



11 



to designate the same office. Paul addresses 
his epistle to the Philippians, " to all the 
saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippic 
with the bishops and deacons;'' implying that 
there were several bishops in the same church. 
There were several elders or presbyters in 
the church at Ephesus,when the apostle sent 
for them, and took his leave of them : and 
several in the church at Antioch, when Paul 
and Barnabas were called from among them 
to go on their first mission to the heathen.* 
In this manner, undoubtedly, the church of 
Rome was originally governed, being under 
the oversight of several joint bishops or elders. 
This accounts for it that there has been so 
much confusion and uncertainty in regard to 
the succession of some of the first Roman 
bishops, several of them seeming to have been 
bishops at nearly the same time. In all 
probability, several of them icere bishops or 
elders, at identically the same period. f 

* Acts 13: 1. 20: 17. 

t Several of the fathers, with Augustine, make Linus the 
second bishop of Rome. According to Tertullian, and most 
of the Latins, Clemens was the second. Cossart, in his great 



12 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



At this early period, when, in each of the 
large churches, there were several bishops or 
presbyters, the associated presbyters would 
have occasion to meet frequently together, to 
consult respecting their common duties and 
interests. In these meetings, some one of 
their number would naturally be called on to 
officiate as moderator or president ; and here 
we have the original ground of distinction 
between bishop and presbyter, in the church 
of Christ. The presiding officer in the pres- 
bytery of any church, who in Justin's time 
bore the name of president, began at length 
to appropriate to himself the title of bishop, 

work (the Concilia), is unable to determine which of these 
was the immediate successor of Peter. He admits " the un- 
certainty of the pontifical succession. 77 At the present time 
Linus is more commonly considered as the second bishop of 
Rome. But according to the Apostolical Constitutions, 
Linus was ordained, not by Peter, but by Paul} so that here, 
again, the succession is embarrassed. JNor is this the only 
difficulty. Baronius, Bellarmine, and others make Cletus 
and Anacletus two different Popes ; while Cotelerius, Fleury, 
and many more, think that they are but different names for 
the same person. Bruys and Cossart deem it quite uncer- 
tain whether they were, or were not, the same. Not less 
than twenty Romish authors have undertaken to settle this 
interminable controversy. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



13 



while his brethren of the ministry were called 
presbyters. This, however, did not take 
place before the close of the second century ; 
and even then, the bishop was only regarded 
as first among equals, and not as belonging to 
a distinct and superior order of men. ' 

When the distinction between bishop and 
presbyter had been made in the manner 
already pointed out, the bishop of Rome soon 
began to regard himself as in some respects 
superior to his brethren of the episcopate. 
This affected superiority, however, did not 
rest on any pretence to Divine authority, or 
to his being the successor of St. Peter, or to 
his belonging to an order above his brethren ; 
but the city of Rome was the great metropo- 
lis of the world ; his church was large, wealthy, 
and powerful ; and he had a great number of 
presbyters under him. Here, also, numerous 
martyrs had suffered for the truth, among 
whom were, at least, two of the apostles. 
On these and similar accounts, the bishop of 
Rome came early to be considered as a sort 
of primate among his brethren, who was to 
be consulted in cases of doubt or difficulty, 
2* 



14 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



and to whom existing disputes were not 
unfrequently referred. 

This deference paid to the bishops of Rome 
served only to increase the arrogance of their 
claims ; so that even before the conversion of 
Constantine, and the deliverance of the 
church from the dangers and horrors of per- 
secution, they had begun to act the Pope, in 
sober earnest. Thus, at the commencement 
of the third century, Victor, bishop of Rome, 
excommunicated the Asiatic bishops, because 
they did not agree with him as to the time 
of observing Easter; and fifty years later, one 
of his successors excommunicated both the 
Asiatic and African bishops, because they 
differed from him as to the baptism of heretics. 

After the accession of Constantine, and the 
removal of the seat of empire from Rome to 
Constantinople, a powerful rival was raised 
up in the latter city, to check the growing 
ambition of the bishop of Rome. For a long 
period, there was a constant strife between 
the bishops of these two great cities, " which 
of them should be the greatest;" the em- 
perors sometimes favoring the one, and some- 



WITH ROMANISM. 



15 



times the other, as their interests or their 
inclinations might chance to dictate. In the 
year 587, the emperor Mauritius conferred 
upon John, bishop of Constantinople, the 
title of "universal bishop. 5 ' At this, the 
bishop of Rome was greatly scandalized, 
declaring the title to be "profane, antichris- 
tian, and infernal, by whomsoever assumed." 
Only a few years later, Phocas, another 
emperor, divested the bishop of Constantino- 
ple of the title of " universal bishop," and 
conferred it upon Boniface, bishop of Rome. 
By him, the " profane, antichristian, and infer- 
nal " title was thankfully received ; and by 
his successors it has been thankfully worn 
ever since. 

The usurpations of the bishop of Rome 
were much increased, by the conversion of 
the barbarous nations who overthrew the 
western Roman empire. In their idolatrous 
state, these fierce barbarians had been ac- 
customed to pay the utmost deference to their 
druids or priests, and particularly to the chief 
druid, or high priest. Upon their change of 
religion, this extraordinary deference was all 



16 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



transferred to the Christian bishops, and 
especially to him who claimed to be the first and 
chief of them all, the bishop of Rome. They 
cheerfully acceded to his arrogant pretensions, 
and were ready to receive and adore him as a 
sort of god upon the earth. 

In the year 756, the bishop of Rome was 
made a temporal prince, by the donation of 
Pepin, king of the Franks. His temporal 
dominions were afterwards increased, by 
additional grants from Charlemagne. 

In this way, the power of the Papacy con- 
tinued gradually to accumulate, till it reached 
its height, in point both of insolence and corrup- 
tion, in the latter part of the 13th and begin- 
ning of the 14th centuries. Then it was that 
the proud bishop of Rome " opposed and 
exalted himself above all that was called god 
or was worshiped, sitting in the temple of 
God, and showing himself that he was God." 
Then it was that the Popes, in their arro- 
gance, claimed an absolute dominion, not only 
over the church and religion, but over the 
whole world, — creating kings, and dethroning 
them ; compelling them to hold their stirrups, 



WITH ROMANISM. 



17 



and to stand bareheaded at their gates ; set- 
ting their feet upon their necks, and kicking, 
in some instances, the crown from off their 
heads.* 

This state of things continued, with cir- 
cumstantial modifications, down to the time 
of the Protestant reformation, when it could 
be endured no longer ; — when the people of 
God, in various parts of Christendom, felt 
themselves called upon, — constrained to sun- 
der the chains with which they had been so 
long and so cruelly bound, and to come out 
and separate themselves from the abomina- 
tions of Rome. I hope to be able to show, 
in the following pages, that these heroes 01 

* In the year 1162, Lewis VII, of France, and Henry II, ot 
England, walking, one on one side of Pope Alexander III, 
and the other on the other, and, holding the bridle of his 
horse, conducted him to his habitation 5 — "a spectacle/ 7 
says Baronius, " most grateful to God, to angels ; and to 
men. 7 ' — Annals Cent. XII. 

In " the Pope's Book of Ceremonies, 77 published at Co- 
logne, in 1571, it is decreed : 1. " The Emperor shall hold the 
Pope's stirrup. 2. He shall lead the Pope's horse. 3. He 
must carry the Pope's chair on his shoulder. 4. He shall 
carry the Pope's first dish. 5. He shall carry the Pope's first 
cup. 77 



18 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



the Reformation acted right. They believed 
the church of Rome to be, not a Christian, 
but an Anti-christian community, — the iden- 
tical Antichrist of the New Testament ; and 
they heard a voice crying to them from the 
prophetic page, " Come out of her, my people, 
that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that 
ye receive not of her plagues." This voice 
they could not, — dared not disobey. They 
came out, and formed themselves into sepa- 
rate communities, more or less resembling, in 
their organization, the primitive churches ; 
and these communities continue to the present 
time. 

The doctrine of the following chapters is, 
that this separation ivas justifiable, and ought 
to be continued ; — that as our fathers of the 
Reformation withdrew from the idolatrous 
church of Rome, so Christians in these days 
ought to have no fellowship or communion with 
her, so long, at least, as she persists in her 
arrogant claims, and continues unreformed. 

At the same time, we wish it to be distinctly 
understood, that it is no part of the object of 
the following pages, to awaken prejudice and 



WITH ROMANISM. 



19 



hatred against individual members of the 
church of Rome, especially those who reside 
among ourselves. We may judge the system, 
without judging and condemning the individ- 
uals who adhere to it. We may set forth the 
enormities of the system, and describe its end, 
without exciting feelings of hatred and indigna- 
tion, either in our own breasts or those of others, 
against those poor, blinded, deluded victims, 
who have fallen within its grasp, and are the 
subjects of its relentless power. Towards 
these, we should indulge no feelings but those 
of kindness, benevolence, and pity. We 
should be willing to pray and labor for them, 
and, if need be, to suffer and make sacrifices 
for their good. We should be ready to do 
all that we have it in our power to do, to 
rescue them from the bloody hand of this 
grand enemy of God and man, and bring them 
into the kingdom of Christ. 



20 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



CHAPTER I. 

First reason why Christians should have no fellowship with 
the church of Rome — Her ecclesiastical constitution en- 
tirely unscriptural — Arguments for the supremacy of the 
Pope considered and refuted — Considerations urged 
against it. 

The grand characteristic feature in the 
constitution of the church of Rome is the 
supremacy of the Pope. He is the univer- 
sal bishop, — Christ's vicar on the earth ; 
to whose care all the churches in the world 
are committed ; to whose oversight and 
government they are subjected. We have 
glanced already at the process by which 
the bishop of Rome attained to the height 
of his power. We have seen at what time, 
and in what manner, his lofty pretensions 
began to be put forth. 

The attempt has often been made to found 
his supremacy on the Scriptures ; but no 
effort of this kind can ever be successful. 
The advocates of Popery will search the 



WITH ROMANISM. 21 

sacred records in vain, to find countenance 
or support for their system. It has been said, 
that, as there was one high-priest over the 
church of Israel, so there ought to be a 
supreme head, or Pope, in the Christian 
church. But to this argument it is sufficient 
to reply, that the services and ministry of 
the Christian church were not borrowed from 
the Jewish temple. We have no smoking > 
altars, or bleeding victims, or mitred priests, 
under the gospel dispensation. The bloody, 
typical rites of the ancient church have all 
met and received their fulfilment in the sacri- 
fice of the cross. The high-priest in Israel 
was the forerunner and type, not of the bishop 
of Rome, but of the Lord Jesus Christ. He 
is the great and only High-Priest of our pro- 
fession, who has made an atonement for us 
with his blood, and who ever liveth to make 
intercession for us in the heavens. To pre- 
tend that the high-priest in Israel was the 
type and representative of the Pope, is to 
thrust him into the office, and invest him with 
the prerogatives of Christ himself. It is to 
yield up to him the glorious priesthood of the 
3 



22 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



Son of God; to suppose him to have made 
expiation for our sins, and to be our great 
advocate and intercessor before the throne of 
God. 

Most of the alleged scriptural proofs of the 
Pope's supremacy have been drawn from his 
supposed relation to the apostle Peter. Peter, 
it is said, was constituted by Christ the prince 
. of the apostles, and the supreme head of the 
church ; and as the Pope is the successor of 
Peter in the see of Rome, he has come into 
rightful possession of his authority and honors. 

In examining this argument, which is really 
the main pillar of Popery, so far as the Scrip- 
tures are concerned, it is proposed to consider 
the three following inquiries : 

I. Did Christ really confer upon Peter such 
honors as the Romanists pretend ? 

II. Was Peter ever bishop of Rome ? 

III. If he was, and if he actually brought 
with him to his episcopal seat all the honors 
that the Romanists claim ; is it certain that 
these were transmitted to his successors, and 
that they have descended in the line of his 
alleged successors to the present time ? 



WITH ROMANISM. 



23 



If all these questions can be answered in 
the affirmative, then is the plea of the Ro- 
manists good. But if all or either of them 
must be answered in the negative, then it is 
good for nothing. Let us look at the inquiries, 
therefore, in the order in which they have been 
presented. 

That the apostle Peter, though an erring 
and imperfect, was yet, on the whole, a faith- 
ful disciple of Christ, and one on whom he 
bestowed distinguished honors, may be fairly 
gathered from the books of the New Testa- 
ment. He is generally supposed to have 
been the eldest of the apostles. Possessing a 
natural temperament that was ardent and 
confident, a vigorous mind, and a fluent tongue, 
he seems, during the personal ministry of 
Christ, and for some time after, to have been 
the chief speaker among his brethren, and a 
frequent organ of communication between 
them and their Master. But that any such 
pre-eminence was conferred on him by Christ 
as that which the Romanists pretend, is not 
only an unscriptural supposition, it is one 
which the Scriptures unequivocally forbid. 



24 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



And the passages cited by the Romanists in 
proof of their proposition are enough to satisfy 
us of this, even if we had no other light on 
the subject. 

It is said, for example, that Christ addresses 
Peter, and Peter Christ, more frequently than 
either of the other disciples ; and that when 
the names of the apostles occur in the New 
Testament, that of Peter is always mentioned 
first. To the fact stated in the first part of 
this assertion, I have already adverted, and 
have sufficiently accounted for it. The latter 
part of the assertion is not true. The name 
of Peter does not always stand first. (See 
Gal. 2:9. 1 Cor. 9 : 5.) But suppose it 
did. Would it follow from this circumstance, 
that Peter was constituted prince of the 
apostles, — universal bishop; and that all 
power in the church was committed to his 
hands ! 

Not only the supremacy of Peter, but his 
infallibility, have been argued from what our 
Saviour said to him, just before his fall. 
" Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired 
to have you, that he may sift you as wheat ; 



WITH ROMANISM, 



25 



but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail 
not; and when thou art converted, strengthen 
thy brethren/' A strange passage this, con- 
sidered in its connection, from which to gather 
pontifical honors for Peter. It imports rather 
his weakness than his supremacy, his frailty 
than hfs infallibility. The advocates of 
Popery must presume largely upon the igno 
ranee of their votaries as to almost every 
thing that the Bible contains, or they would 
never urge such an argument as this. 

Peter's supremacy in the church has been 
further argued from what our Saviour said to 
him subsequent to his resurrection. " Simon, 
son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? 
He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest 
that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed 
my lambs. He saith to him again the second 
time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me ? 
He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest 
that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed 
my sheep. He saith unto him the third 
time," — in allusion, undoubtedly, to Peter's 
having so recently denied him thrice, — 

" Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me ? Pe- 
3 # 



26 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



ter was grieved, because he said unto him the 
third time, Lovest thou me?" And fearing 
that he was not yet perfectly restored to the 
affection of his Master, he answered more 
confidently than before, " Lord, thou knowest 
all things, thou knowest that I love thee. 
Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep." 
Whatever of supremacy is here given to Peter 
must be communicated in the charge, " Feed 
my sheep," and " Feed my lambs." But this 
same charge was subsequently given to all the 
apostles. " Go ye, therefore, and teach all 
nations." "Go ye into all the world, and 
preach the gospel to every creature." It is 
the same charge, verbally, which the apostle 
Paul committed to the Ephesian elders ; and 
which Peter committed to the elders whom 
he addressed. " Feed the church of God, 
which he hath purchased with his own blood." 
" Feed the flock of God which is among you, 
taking the oversight thereof willingly." Acts 
20 : 28. 1 Pet. 5:2. It is the same charge 
that is now given to all Christ's accredited 
and faithful ministers, entering into their very 
commission to preach the gospel. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



27 



Some of the Romanists have inferred, from 
this charge of Christ to Peter, the obligation 
of burning heretics ; since the duty of feeding 
the sheep necessarily involves that of destroy- 
ing the wolves. We think this inference quite 
as obvious and as reasonable, as that which 
attempts to draw from the passage the eccle- 
siastical supremacy of Peter. 

The supremacy of Peter has been urged 
from various other passages of the New Tes- 
tament : From the circumstance that our 
Saviour entered into his ship and taught, Luke 
5:3; that " Peter stood up in the midst of 
the disciples," soon after the ascension of 
Christ, and proposed to them the choice of 
another apostle, Acts 1 : 15 ; that he was the 
principal (though not only) preacher on the 
day of Pentecost, Acts 2:4; that he rebuked 
the falsehood of Ananias and Sapphira, in 
consequence of which they fell down dead at 
his word, Acts 5:3; that he performed so 
many and great miracles, Acts 5: 15; that 
the church prayed so effectually for him, 
when he was in prison, Acts 12: 5; that 
Paul went up to Jerusalem to see him, " and 



28 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



abode with him fifteen days/' Gal. I : 15 ; 
indeed, from almost every circumstance in 
the life of Peier 3 unless it be his denial of his 
Master, his dissimulation at Antioch, and the 
fact that our Saviour once compared him to 
Satan, and ordered him to get out of his sight, 
Mat. 16: 23. But what do all such pas- 
sages prove ? Undoubtedly, that Peter was 
a forward, prompt, bold, and for the most part 
honored disciple; one who sometimes made 
great mistakes, but whom, on the whole, the 
Saviour loved, and his brethren loved, and in 
whom they reposed the highest confidence ; 
but not that he was exalted to any supremacy 
over them, or over the church, whose interests 
they were unitedly laboring to promote. Such 
an idea seems not to have entered into the 
mind of one of them ; and least of all into 
that of Peter. 

But the principal passage in proof of Peter's 
supremacy, and almost the only one that has 
enough of plausibility to entitle it to serious 
consideration, is that in Matt. 16 : 13 — 19. 

It is evident, from the first verse of this 
passage, that our Saviour commenced the 



WITH ROMANISM. 



29 



conversation with his disciples collectively. 
" He asked his disciples, saying, Whom do 
men say that I, the son of man, am? And 
they said, Some say that thou art John the 
Baptist, some Elias, and some Jeremias, or 
one of the prophets. He saith unto them 
again collectively, " But whom say ye that I 
am ? And Simon Peter/ 5 answering in the 
name and behalf of them all (for they could 
not all answer together), "said, Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God. And 
Jesus answered and said unto him," and 
through him to all the rest, "'Blessed art thou, 
Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and blood hath not 
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is 
in heaven. And I say also unto thee, that 
thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will 
build my church, and the gates of hell shall 
not prevail against it." The principal ques- 
tion in reference to the passage thus far is, 
What did our Saviour intend by the term 
rockl "'On this rock I will build my 
church," Sec. The Romanists insist that the 
rock means Peter ; and in proof of it they tell 
us that the name Peter (in Greek Petros), 



30 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



which our Saviour gave to him on a previous 
occasion, signifies a rock or stone. It should 
be noted, however, that the word here ren- 
dered rock is not petros (in the masculine) as 
it certainly would have been, had our Saviour 
intended to call Peter the rock, but petra 
(feminine) clearly indicating that something 
else is intended.^ To what, then, did Christ 
refer? What did he mean to say was the 
rock ? Clearly, as it seems to me, the noble 
confession which Peter, in behalf of himself 
and his brethren, had just made ; or rather, 
perhaps, the truth, — the foundation truth y 
which Peter had uttered : Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God. 
This truth is indeed the petra, the rock, on 
which the whole church of Christ rests, and 
" the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 1 
We see, therefore, from the very terms em- 
ployed, that Peter personally was not the 

* Had our Saviour intended to set forth Peter as the rock, 
it is grammatically certain that he would have said, " Thou 
art Petros, and on thee will 1 build my church f or, " On this 
petros I will build my church/ 7 using the same term as before. 
But he was careful to change the term, and to use one in the 
feminine gender, which could not apply to Peter. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



31 



rock. We learn the same from various other 
representations of Scripture. Christ and not 
Peter, is represented every where, in both the 
Old Testament and the New, as the corner 
stone of Zion, the rock which lies at the foun- 
dation of his church. " The stone which the 
builders rejected, the same is become the 
head stone of the corner." Ps. 118: 22. 
Matt. 21: 42. " Behold I lay in Zion for 
a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious 
corner stone, a sure foundation" This pas- 
sage is quoted at length by Peter, and is 
expressly referred by him to the Saviour. 
(See Is. 28: 16. 1 Pet. 2: 6.) "Other 
foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, 
which is Jesus Christ" 1 Cor. 3 : 11. 

Considered as the appointed instruments of 
publishing to the world the great truths of the 
gospel, — that propounded by Peter in the 
passage above quoted, and others connected 
with it, — all the apostles, and not only the 
apostles, but the prophets before them, may 
be regarded as foundations in the church. 
And so they are regarded and spoken of in 
the Scriptures. Still, they are not the rock 



32 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



on which the church is built. Christ is the 
chief corner stone. "And are built upon 
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, 
Jesus Christ himself being the chief comer 
stone" Eph. 2 : 20. Peter is a foundation, 
therefore, in no other sense than the rest of 
the apostles ; and they all constitute a foun- 
dation in no such sense as to interfere with 
the grand prerogative of Christ, who is, and 
ever will be, the corner stone of Zion ; the 
foundation rock on which "the whole church 
rests. 

But we have not yet done with Christ's 
address to Peter. In the verse following 
those on which we have remarked, our Sav- 
iour says, " And I will give unto thee the 
keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and whatso- 
ever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound 
in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose 
on earth shalt be loosed in heaven." Here 
is undoubtedly a communication of authority ; 
but it is an authority which Peter enjoyed in 
common with all his brethren, the apostles. 
This is evident from the fact, that, as Peter 
here speaks in behalf of his brethren, so he 



WITH ROMANISM. 



33 



is addressed in behalf of them all.* The 
powers committed to him he was to possess 
in common with them all. The same is far- 
ther evident from the consideration, that there 
are parallel passages, in which the powers here 
spoken of are expressly imparted to all the 
apostles. " Verily I say unto you " (the 
disciples), " whatsoever ye shall bind on earth 
shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever 
ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in 
heaven." Matt. 18 : 18. " Then said Jesus 
to them again, Peace be unto you. As my 
Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 
And when he had said this, he breathed on 
them and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. 
Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted 

* Cyprian. " In the person of one man, God gave the 
keys to them all, to signify the unity of them all. Therefore 
the rest were the same as Peter ; endued with an equal par- 
ticipation of honor and of power." 

Augustine. 11 When a question was put to them all, 
Peter alone answers, Thou art the Christ 3 and to him Christ 
says, I will give thee the keys, as if the power of binding and 
loosing had been conferred upon him alone. Whereas he 
made that answer on behalf of all, and received this power 
in common with all, as sustaining the character of unity." 

4 



34 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain, 
they are retained." John 20 : 21 — 23. 

These apostles were God's chosen, ap- 
pointed instruments for laying the foundations 
of the Christian church ; and not only so, 
but for rearing up the superstructure. It 
devolved on them to open to the world the 
new dispensation ; to organize the Chris- 
tian community, and give it laws ; to preach 
the kingdom of God, and gather men into it. 
To qualify them for these most important 
duties, they received the plenary inspiration 
of the Holy Spirit, so that whatever they did 
or said, in discharge of their high commission, 
was to be regarded as coming from God. It 
was in this sense that they were qualified to 
bind or loose, to remit sins or retain them, and 
might be said to have the keys of the king- 
dom of heaven. Whatever laws or burdens 
they imposed upon the church, God imposed 
them ; and whatever of former burdens they 
might be led to remove, God would remove 
the same. Under the inspiration of the Holy 
Ghost, they should be qualified to state pre- 
cisely the conditions of pardon : so that 



WITH ROMANISM. 



35 



whosesoever sins they might declare remitted, 
would be remitted ; and whosesoever sins they 
declared retained, would be retained. Here 
was indeed a high authority committed to 
the apostles ; but it was committed to all 
alike, — no more to Peter than the rest ; and 
the assistance of the Spirit, with which they 
were favored, qualified them to exercise it 
with unerring fidelity. 

We see, then, that this whole passage, 
properly interpreted, confers no supremacy 
or superiority upon Peter. 

That he possessed no superiority in the 
apostolic churches is abundantly evident from 
other representations of scripture. 

On one occasion, our Saviour expressly 
prohibited any of his disciples (and Peter, of 
course, among the rest) from exercising author- 
ity one over another. " Ye know that the 
princes of the Gentiies exercise dominion over 
them, and they that are great exercise author- 
ity upon them. But it shall not be so among 
you;" — an express contradiction of the al- 
leged supremacy of Peter, and a prohibition 
of all popish dominion. 



36 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



We are told in the Acts, that "when 
the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard 
that Samaria had received the word of God, 
they sent unto them Peter and John." We 
are further told, that when Peter had returned 
from his mission to Cornelius, and had " come 
up to Jerusalem, they that were of the cir- 
cumcision contended with him, saying, Thou 
wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat 
with them." (Chap. 8: 14. 11: % 3.) 
Have we not conclusive evidence, in both 
these passages, that the church at Jerusalem, 
of which Peter was a member and minister, 
knew nothing at all of his supremacy ? 

The apostle Paul had frequent occasion to 
vindicate his apostleship. A principal object 
of the first two chapters of his epistle to the 
Galatians was to prove his equality with the 
apostles at Jerusalem, more especially with 
Peter, James, and John. It is here that he 
tells us of Peter's dissimulation at Antioch, 
and how he " withstood him to the face, be- 
cause he was to be blamed." On another 
occasion, Paul says expressly, " I w r as not 
a whit behind the chief est apostles." 2 Cor. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



37 



11 : 5. In these passages, we have circum- 
stances introduced, and language used, which 
are in direct contradiction to the alleged 
supremacy of Peter. 

The consultation (or council, as it is some- 
times called), of which we have an account 
in the fifteenth chapter of Acts, is often ap- 
pealed to in support of Peter's supremacy. 
But nothing can more effectually disprove it. 
If there was any supremacy manifested here, 
it was that of James, and not of Peter. For 
after the case had been fully stated, and Peter 
and the rest had delivered their sentiments, 
James rose and expressed an opinion which 
was unanimously adopted." My sentence is, 
that we trouble not them which, from among 
the Gentiles, are turned unto God," &c. 
What arrogance and presumption was this in 
James, on supposition that Peter had long 
before been constituted the prince of the 
apostles, and Christ's vicar and vicegerent on 
the earth ? 

As the other apostles had no idea of the 
supremacy of Peter, so the thought seems not 
once to have entered his own mind. In his 
4* 



38 NO FELLOWSHIP 

epistles, which were written near the close of 
life, he uniformly expresses himself with great 
modesty and humility, putting himself on a 
level with the lowest of his brethren, and 
condescending to use the language of exhor- 
tation, when, on supposition of his long ex- 
ercised supremacy, he might more properly 
have issued words of command, " The elders 
which are among you, I exhort, who am also 
an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of 
Christ." 1 Pet. 5:1. 

And as neither Peter himself, nor the 
church in his age, had any thought of his 
supremacy, so neither did the Christian 
Fathers, who lived in the ages immediately 
following. Many of them expressed their 
opinions on the verse, "Thou art Peter," 
fcc.j and with scarcely an exception, they 
interpret the language as conferring nothing 
upon Peter, which did not belong equally to 
the other apostles. I give the following as 
specimens of their interpretations : 

Tertullian. " Peter was called a stone 
or rock for the building of the church. All 
the apostles were stones" Again : " The 



WITH ROMANISM. 



39 



church was builded upon Peter, because it 
was builded by him. 55 

Origen. " If thou thinkest that the uni- 
versal church is builded by God upon this one 
Peter, what sayest thou of James, and John, 
and of every one of the apostles ? It was truly 
said unto Peter, ' Thou art Peter, and upon 
this stone I will build my church f yet it 
seemeth to be said to all the apostles, and to 
every perfect, faithful man ; because they 
all, as Peter, be stones, and on them all the 
church of Christ is builded, and the gates 
of hell shall prevail against none of them that 
are such." 

Cyprian. " The same thing, verily, was 
all the apostles, that Peter was, endued with 
equal fellowship of honor and authority ; but 
the beginning proceedeth from one, that the 
church mkht be showed to be one. 57 

Cyril. " It was said to Peter, because 
he had confessed the faith right soundly, and 
had said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
living God, thou art Peter, and upon this 
rock will I build my church ; meaning by the 
rock, as I think, the immovable faith of the 
apostle." 



40 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



Chrysostom. "The son of thunder " 
(meaning John), "is most beloved of Christ, 
the pillar of all the churches, which hath the 
keys of the kingdom of heaven." Again, 
" The dignity of all the apostles is equal" 

Jerome. " Thou sayest the church is 
founded upon Peter, although the very same 
thing is done upon all the apostles, and they 
all receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven, 
and the strength of the church is established 
equally upon them all" 

Hilary. 66 This one foundation is un- 
movable ; this is that one happy rock of faith, 
confessed by the mouth of Peter, Thou art 
the Son of the living God." "All the apos- 
tles, for the worthiness of their faith, ac- 
knowledging his divinity, received the keys 
of the kingdom of heaven, and authority of 
binding and loosing, in heaven and on earth." 

Augustine. " Peter, having confessed 
Christ to be the Son of God, in that confession 
was called a stone, upon which the church 
should be builded." Again, " Thou art 
Peter, and upon this rock which thou hast 
acknowledged, saying, c Thou art the Christ, 



WITH ROMANISM. 



41 



the Son of the living God/ I will build my 
church ; i. e., upon myself, the Son of the 
living God, I will build my church. I will 
build thee upon me; not me upon thee." 

Ambrose. " That Peter received the 
building of the church committed unto him, 
we acknowledge, as all the rest of the apostles 
did likewise] they being the foundation of 
the church as well as he." 

Theophylact. " Although it was said to 
Peter alone, ' I will give to thee,' yet the keys 
tcere granted to all the apostles " 

Epiphanius. "Because he (Peter) con- 
fessed Christ to be the Son of the living God, 
upon this rock of steadfast faith I will build 
my church." 

Theodoret. "When our Lord inquired 
of his disciples, 6 Whom do men say that I, 
the Son of man, am V blessed Peter an- 
swereth, ' Thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
living God.' To whom the Lord replieth, 
6 Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I 
build my church.' He calleth the piety of 
faith, and profession of truth, a rock" 



42 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



But waiving all that has been said, and 
admitting (what can never be proved, and 
what the Scriptures in various forms forbid) 
that Peter was advanced to a primacy among 
the apostles, and a supremacy in the church ; 
can it be shown, in the second place, that he 
was ever bishop of Rome ? For if he was 
not actually bishop of Rome, his alleged 
primacy and supremacy can do the Romanists 
no good. 

I hardly need say, in answer to the inquiry 
now before us, that the Scriptures furnish not 
a particle of evidence that Peter was ever 
bishop of Rome. And this I regard as a very 
material fact. A point of so much impor- 
tance as the translation of Peter to Rome 
(supposing such a thing to have occurred), 
the sacred writers would hardly have passed 
over in silence, leaving it to be gathered from 
uncertain tradition. 

The tradition of the Romanists is, that 
Peter was first bishop of Antioch ; from which 
place he was transferred to Rome, where he 
continued bishop twenty-five years, to the 
time of his martyrdom, which took place in 



WITH ROMANISM. 



43 



the persecution under Nero, about A. D. 65. 
Let us now take this whole story, and com- 
pare it with the facts and representations of 
Scripture. From the death of Christ (A. D. 
33), to the time of the persecution under 
Nero (A. D. 65), there were only thirty-two 
years. From the first and second chapters 
of the epistle to the Galatians, it appears that 
full twenty years after the death of Christ, 
Peter was a resident at Jerusalem ; because 
Paul went up to see him there, and received 
from him, and James, and John, the right 
hand of fellowship. We next hear of Peter 
at Antioch, where he dissembled, and Paul 
openly reproved him. Subsequent to this, he 
was probably at Corinth ; as that church 
became divided respecting their ministers, 
some claiming to be of Paul, and some of 
Apollos, and some of Cephas, another name 
for Peter. 1 Cor. 1 : 12. Still later in life, 
we find him at Babylon ; either Babylon in 
Egypt, or more probably the great Babylon 
in Assyria, in the neighborhood of which 
many Jews had resided ever since the Baby- 
lonish captivity. It is from this place that 



44 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



he dates his first epistle.* (See chap. 5: 13.) 
According to the testimony of Origen, Peter's 
missionary labors were chiefly among the dis- 
persed Jews, in the regions of Pontus, Galatia, 
Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia. And this 
agrees with the representation of Paul, that 
while he was commissioned to go to the hea- 
then, Peter was the apostle of the circumcision. 
Gal. 2:7. It agrees also with the representa- 
tion of Peter himself, who directs his first epistle 
" to the strangers (foreign Jews) scattered 
thoughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, 
and Bithynia." 

And now, in view of all these facts, which, 
if not established by Scripture, certainly 
have the concurrence of Scripture, we would 
seriously ask, Where is there room or space 
for Peter's twenty-five years' residence at 

* The Romanists contend that Babylon here means Rome ; 
and cite this passage in proof that Peter was bishop of Rome. 
u But this/' as Dr. Dick well remarks ; " is a miserable shift. 
In a prophetical work (like the Apocalypse) where symbol- 
ical language is continually used, Rome might be called 
Babylon, on account of its moral resemblance to that ancient 
city 5 but the change of name would have been altogether 
improper, in a plain epistle, in which there was no reason 
for concealment. 77 



WITH ROMANISM. 



45 



Rome ? After the period when we 'know of 
his residence at Jerusalem, there remain but 
twelve years to the time of his death. And in 
these twelve years must be included his resi- 
dence at Antioch, and at Corinth (whether 
longer or shorter), and the numerous mission- 
ary operations and excursions in which he 
engaged in the latter part of his life. Where 
then, I ask again, shall space be found for 
Peter's twenty-five years' residence at Rome ; 
or for his being there for any considerable 
time, previous to his martyrdom ? 

But passing over all these chronological 
difficulties, and in spite of them all, adopting 
the conclusion, that Peter was bishop of Rome 
during the last twenty-five years of his life ; 
how will this agree with other representations 
of Scripture ? Paul wrote his epistle to the 
Romans about A. D. 57 ; long after Peter, 
according to the Romanists, had become 
bishop of that church ; and yet there is not 
a word about Peter in it, nor so much as 
an intimation that Peter, or any other apostle, 
had ever been there. In the last chapter of 
his epistle, Paul sends salutations to beloved 
5 



46 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



Christian friends at Rome, mentioning them 
by name, and suggesting a variety of circum- 
stances respecting them ; but still not one 
word with regard to Peter. Two or three 
years later, Paul himself arrived, a prisoner, 
at Rome, and was received with great favor 
by the brethren ; but no mention is made of 
Peter. " Paul dwelt two whole years " at 
Rome, " in his own hired house," from whence 
he wrote several of his epistles to the churches ; 
but in none of these epistles, do we find the 
slightest allusion to Peter. Nor is this the 
worst of it. The epistles of Paul from Rome 
contain intimations which, if Peter had been 
there, must be regarded as highly disreputa- 
ble to him. In one of these epistles, he says 
of those about him, "All seek their own, not 
the things that are Jesus Christ's;" and in 
another, he complains, " at my first answer, no 
man stood with me, but all men forsook me ; 
I pray God that it may not be laid to their 
charge." (Phil. 2: 21. 2 Tim. 4 : 16.) 
Where was Peter on this trying occasion ? 
And who can believe, in face of all these 
representations, that, up to the time of Paul's 



WITH ROMANISM. 



47 



writing his second epistle to Timothy, Peter 
had ever been bishop of Rome ? 

In short, there is no reason to suppose that 
Peter ever was, in the proper sense of the 
term, a bishop any where ; or in other words, 
that he ever took upon himself a pastoral 
charge. He was an apostle, and not a bishop. 
Not only are these two offices not the same, 
they seem incompatible one with the other. 
An apostle is a missionary, a minister at large, 
one who has (what Paul tells us he had) 
" the care of all the churches." A bishop 
has, or should have, a pastoral charge. He 
is the overseer of a particular flock. He is 
confined, in his attentions, to some particular 
field of labor. But to what particular fields 
of labor were the apostles individually con- 
fined ? They were appointed expressly that 
they might be " witnesses for Christ, in Jeru- 
salem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and 
to the uttermost part of the earth." They 
were given to the church at large, and would 
have been guilty of a violation of duty, if 
they had confined their labors to any particu- 
lar portion of it. Peter is degraded by the 



48 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



supposition, that, from being a distinguished 
apostle, he became the bishop of a single city, 
even though that city were Rome. 

There is an additional consideration, which 
renders the supposition of his becoming the 
bishop of Rome still more violent and inad- 
missible. Peter was not only an apostle, but 
an apostle of the circumcision. He was led, 
through the greater part of his ministerial life, 
and more especially in the latter part of it, to 
direct his attention to the scattered, dispersed 
Jews. How then can we suppose that one, 
unto whom " the gospel of the circumcision " 
was specially committed, and in whom the 
Spirit of Christ "wrought effectually," to 
qualify him for his work, should consent 
speedily to retire from it, and settle down as 
pastor of a church in a Gentile city ; — a 
church, too, composed (in considerable part 
at least) of Gentile converts ? Assuredly, 
the supposition is, in every view, inadmissible ; 
and with the Scriptures in hand, no one can 
reasonably believe that Peter was ever bishop 
of Rome. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



49 



But if we were to pass over all that has 
been already said ; if we were to do such 
violence to Scripture as to admit that Peter 
was exalted to a primacy among the apostles, 
and a supremacy over the whole church, and 
that, in the possession of this supremacy, he 
consented to sit down bishop of Rome ; how 
do we know, in the third place, that he re- 
tained his honors, after he became a bishop ; 
or, if he retained them, that he imparted them 
to the long line of his pretended successors ? 
He might have held his supremacy (on sup- 
position it was ever imparted to him), on 
condition of his continuing to be an apostle, 
and to perform the labors of an apostle ; so 
that when he consented to retire from these 
labors, and become the pastor of a church, the 
condition was forfeited, and his supreme author- 
ity was taken from him. Or if we suppose 
that he continued to be an apostle, after he 
became a bishop, and continued to hold his 
alleged supremacy ; how do we know that it 
descended to his successors ? There were 
many things pertaining to the character and 
office of the apostles, that were peculiar to 
5* 



50 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



them ; which they neither did, nor could, 
impart to others ; and how does it appear 
that the pretended supremacy of Peter was 
not one of those incommunicable things? 
Or if we pass over this, and regard the alleged 
supremacy as communicable ; to whom was it 
communicated 1 Who were the successors of 
Peter? Who are they? We have here 
another difficulty, which not all the wisdom, 
nor the pretended infallibility of Rome, has 
yet been able to remove. One tells us that 
Clemens was the immediate successor of Pe- 
ter. Another that Linus was his immediate 
successor, and that Clemens was third in the 
succession. Some say that Cletus and Ana- 
cletus were two different Popes ; while others 
will have it that they are but different names 
of the same person. All agree that Linus 
was one of the first Popes after Peter, if not 
the very first ; but Linus, it appears, received 
his ordination from Paul, and not from Peter, 
and of course can come in for no share of the 
transmitted supremacy. 

And as we proceed down the line of Rom- 
ish bishops, and find sometimes two, and 



WITH ROMANISM. 



51 



sometimes three or four, quarrelling and fight- 
ing for the Episcopal chair, and each con- 
tending that he has got it, and excommuni- 
cating and anathematizing all the rest ; who 
shall decide, at this day, where the alleged 
succession runs ; or whether it runs any 
where, — whether it has not long since ter- 
minated ? 

We here leave the argument for the suprem- 
acy of the Pope, growing out of his pretended 
relation to the apostle Peter. We have shown 
that Peter had no supremacy among the 
apostles ; and that he never was bishop of 
Rome. We have furthermore shown that, 
even on the supposition of his supremacy, and 
of his being bishop of Rome ; there is no 
certainty that he retained his alleged apostol- 
ical supremacy, after he became a bishop; 
or if he did, that he imparted it to his succes- 
sors ; or if he did impart it, that there is no 
telling, at this day, who his successors were, 
or are, or whether he now has any in the 
world. 

We conclude the discussion, with stating 
some other objections to an ecclesiastical 



52 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



hierarchy, like that of Rome, with a supreme 
Pontiff at its head, claiming to hold an uni- 
versal dominion, and to be the vicegerent of 
Christ on the earth. 

We have seen already, that such a form of 
government has no countenance in the Scrip- 
tures. If, as has been shown, the Pope is 
not the successor of the Jewish high priest, 
nor of the apostle Peter ; we shall search in 
vain to find any Pope in the Bible; or any 
thing like a Pope ; or any thing out of which 
a Pope can lawfully be made. And this alone 
is objection enough to a Popish hierarchy, 
even if there were no other. 

But the Scriptures disclose to us numerous 
facts and considerations, all in direct opposi- 
tion to such a form of church government as 
that which has been instituted by the Popes. 
Such, for example, is the strict independence 
of the primitive churches, each constituting a 
community by itself; allied to its sister 
churches by the ties of close fellowship and 
fervent love, but subject to the jurisdiction of 
no foreign body. Such, too, is the free, 
republican character of these churches ; each 



WITH ROMANISM. 



53 



choosing its own officers, admitting and ex- 
eluding members, directing its own discipline, 
and managing in general its own proper 
concerns. 

That such was the polity of the primitive 
churches (at least, after they passed from 
under the care of the apostles, and to a great 
extent during the ministry of the apostles), is 
evident not only from Scripture, but from the 
testimony of impartial historians. Wadding- 
ton, an Episcopalian, speaking of the church 
in the first century, says, " Every church was 
essentially independent of every other. The 
churches, thus constituted and regulated, 
formed a sort of federative body of indepen- 
dent religious communities, dispersed through 
the greater part of the Roman empire, in 
continual communication and in constant 
harmony with each other." Mosheim, a Lu- 
theran, thus describes the state of things in 
the first century. " All the churches, in those 
primitive times, were independent bodies, or 
none of them subject to the jurisdiction of 
any other. For though the churches which 
were founded by the apostles frequently had 



54 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



the honor shown them to be consulted in 
difficult cases, yet they had no judicial au- 
thority, no control, no power of giving laws. 
On the contrary, it is clear as the noon-day, 
that all Christian churches had equal rights, 
and were in all respects on a footing of 
equality." The same author, speaking of the 
second century, says, " During a great part of 
this century, all the churches continued to be, 
as at first, independent of each other, or were 
connected by no consociations or confedera- 
tions. Each church was a kind of little 
independent republic, governed by its own 
laws, which were enacted or at least sanc- 
tioned by the people." 

That a state of things such as is here 
described is utterly inconsistent with the ex- 
istence of a hierarchy at Rome, wielding a 
supreme power over all the churches, and 
dictating to them according to its will, is too 
obvious to require or admit of proof. 

The idea of such a hierarchy is at war with 
other representations of the inspired volume. 
If we admit a supreme and infallible head of 
the church at Rome, what ?.re we to do with 



WITH ROMANISM. 



55 



those many passages in which Christ is de- 
clared to be the head of the church, and head 
over all things to the church ? A body with 
two heads would be a monster. (See Eph. 
1 : 22. 4: 15. Col. 1 : 18.) 

In setting forth Christ's ascension gifts to 
his church, Paul says, " He gave some, apos- 
tles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evan- 
gelists ; and some, pastors and teachers ; 
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work 
of the ministry, for the edifying of the body 
of Christ." Eph. 4: 11, 12. But why,— 
if the supreme Pontiff, the universal bishop, 
were really among the ascension gifts ; — 
why is he not mentioned here ? Surely, the 
greatest and most important gift of all (at 
least in his own estimation of it) ought pot 
to have been omitted. 

There is another thought which I submit 
for the consideration of those who believe that 
the first bishops of Rome were sovereign 
Pontiffs, and possessed a supreme power in 
the church. It is likely that several of the 
apostles lived longer than Peter. John, in 
particular, is supposed to have survived him 



56 



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more than thirty years. But on the theory 
of the Romanists, these surviving apostles 
were all of them in subjection to the bishops 
of Rome. Here was the venerable John, 
subjected to the authority of Clemens, or 
Linus, or Cletus, or Anacletus, or perhaps 
successively to them all. If he did not walk 
or teach according to the mind of these Rom- 
ish priests, it was their prerogative to control 
him. And if he did not submit to their dic- 
tation, they might issue out their bull, and 
have him before them ; or might hurl their 
anathema at his head. 

I need say no more to show that Popish 
supremacy and the Scriptures are utterly at 
variance. The two cannot exist together. 
No wonder the Romanists are so unwilling 
that the Bible should come into the hands of 
the common people. They must keep it 
away from their people, or Papal supremacy, 
and with it their whole ecclesiastical con- 
stitution, must crumble into dust. 

And as little pretence is there for founding 
the supremacy of the Popes upon early Chris- 
tian antiquity, as upon the Bible. A thou- 



WITH ROMANISM. 



57 



sand facts might be adduced, to show that this 
order of things had no existence in the church, 
before the time of Constantine. After the 
establishment of Christianity, for several hun- 
dred years, the emperors undeniably exercised 
supreme power in the church. They issued 
laws, called councils, deposed bishops, 
decided controversies, and performed every 
act of sovereignty which pleased them. And 
when, at length, the bishop of Rome was con- 
stituted universal bishop, it was one of the 
emperors that made him so.* He became a 
Pope, not by the gift of God, but by the 
decree of a murderer. 

* Phocas ; who. after murdering the emperor Mauritius, 
mounted the Imperial throne, about the beginning of the 
seventh century. 



6 



58 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



CHAPTER II. 

Second reason why Christians should have no fellowship with 
Rome — Her corrupt doctrines. 

The people of God should have no con- 
nection with the church of Rome, on account 
of the corrupt doctrines which she inculcates. 

The corruption of doctrine which prevails 
in this apostate church is entire; running 
through almost the whole system of religious 
truth. I say corruption of doctrine ; for while 
the church of Rome professes to hold most 
of the doctrines of the Bible, by additions 
and perversions she has so corrupted them, 
as entirely to change their nature and char- 
acter, and convert them into essential error. 
Thus, while the doctrine of one God has a 
place in her creed, she has in reality " gods 
many, and lords many." She has surrounded 
the one God with so many other objects of 
religious worship, — pictures and images, the 



WITH ROMANISM. 



59 



virgin, the angels, and the saints, that the 
great and only God is comparatively for- 
saken. His due and rightful worship is 
discarded. 

The Romish church professes also to re- 
ceive the Bible. But how does she treat the 
holy Bible ? In the first place, she has 
made large additions to it of books which 
have no claim to canonical authority. This 
is true in respect to all the apocryphal books 
of the Old Testament.* In the second place, 
she suffers it to be read only in a corrupted 
version (the Latin Vulgate), and in worse 
translations. Indeed, she discourages, if not 
restrains, the common people from reading it 
at all. Then, in the third place, she has 
made the decrees of her Popes, the canons 
of her councils, and the traditions which she 
professes to have received from the Fathers, 
of equal authority with the word of God. 
The Bible must be interpreted in strict ac- 
cordance with the decisions of the church; 
and where the one contradicts the other (as 
they frequently do), the former must, in all 



* See Appendix, No. I. 



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cases, yield to the latter. Thus, like the 
Pharisees of old, she has made the word of 
God of none effect, by her traditions. 

The church of Rome professes to receive 
the doctrine of Christ ; of his proper divinity 
and humanity, his merits and intercession ; 
but this great doctrine is altogether nullified 
by her traditions and corruptions. The 
divine Redeemer, instead of being the only 
Mediator between God and man, is but one 
among a great many others. The virgin 
Mary especially, — her mediation and inter- 
cession, — is more sought to, and trusted in, 
than is the Lord Jesus Christ. The canon- 
ized saints and martyrs are all of them regarded 
as in some sense mediators, through whom 
access is to be gained to the Saviour and 
to God. And so far from trusting in the 
blood of Christ alone for salvation, this pre- 
cious blood is quite excluded, and other 
foundations are substituted in its place. The 
observance of rites, the intercession of saints, 
the paying of money to the priests, the keep- 
ing of vows, fasts, and vigils, the endurance 
of self-inflicted tortures and penances, — these, 



WITH ROMANISM. 



61 



and many other things of the like nature, are 
made the trust of the deluded Romanist, and 
constitute the foundation of his hope. 

The church of which we speak professes 
to receive the doctrines of regeneration, re- 
pentance, and faith. But her regeneration is 
neither more nor less than water baptism, 
canonically administered, and accompanied by 
the requisite appendage of superstitious rites. 
Her repentance is little more than doing pen- 
ance. Indeed, the Greek word, which we 
properly translate repentance, is in some of 
the Romish Bibles rendered doing penance. 
"Except ye do penance, ye shall all like- 
wise perish." The faith, too, which this 
church enjoins, is not that affectionate trust 
in the Saviour which the Scriptures make 
essentia] to salvation, but an implicit confidence 
in the church and the priest, and a willing- 
ness to do, bear, or suffer all that the priest 
enjoins. 

The great doctrine of justification by faith 
alone, for which Paul so earnestly contended 
in his day, is, of course, utterly discarded in 
the church of Rome. Works of various 
6* 



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kinds, and not Christ, have there become the 
foundation of hope ; so that Luther and his 
fellow-laborers had the same battle to fight 
over with the Romanists, at the time of the 
Reformation, which Paul had contested with 
the Judaisers, fifteen hundred years before. 

The church of Rome professes to receive 
the sacraments of the New Testament, bap- 
tism and the Lord's supper; tut to these she 
has added five others, making seven in all ; 
and the two original sacraments she has so 
corrupted and changed, that they retain 
scarcely a semblance of their pristine sim- 
plicity and purity. Instead of being (what 
they were intended to be) means of salvation, 
they have been converted into snares and 
destroyers of the soul. Baptism, administered 
by a Romish priest, and encumbered with a 
load of superstitious observances, is regenera- 
tion; without which, of course, there is 
no salvation, and after which there is com- 
paratively little danger of destruction. And 
the elements of the Lord's supper, — those 
beautiful symbols of a Saviour's love, and 
pledges of union among all his people, — 



WITH ROMANISM. 



63 



are, by the magic consecration of the priest, 
converted into the divine Saviour himself. 
They become the body and blood, the soul 
and divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. They 
are adored as such. They are eaten as such. 
I say eaten ; for the laity are not permitted 
to drink. And when eaten, these elements 
are confided in, as the Saviour from sin. To 
eat them is, in fact, to receive Christ. The 
partaking of them is the consummation of that 
union between Christ and the communicant, 
which (unless afterwards forfeited by mortal 
sin) conveys an assurance of salvation. 

The Romanists not only believe in the 
church, but make the greatest possible account 
of it. There is no word so continually in 
their mouths as the church, the church. But 
what is the church, of which they so loudly 
boast? As unlike the free, simple organiza- 
tions of the New Testament, as two things 
can possibly be. The proud bishop of Rome 
has not only usurped all the powers and priv- 
ileges of the church, which were secured to it 
by its divine Redeemer and head, but he lays 
claim to the powers of God himself. The 



64 



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very powers and prerogatives which God 
might assert, were he to sit down incarnate 
on the pontifical throne, the Pope of Rome 
actually does assert, and in thousands of 
instances has undertaken to exercise. He 
may forgive sins, or retain them. He may 
change times and laws which God has ap- 
pointed, and has made unalterable. He may 
release the subjects of any civil government 
under heaven from their obligations of obedi- 
ence. He claims to be infallible in his 
determinations, and holds the keys of hell 
and of death. 

The church of Rome professes to believe 
in a future state of rewards and punishments. 
But how unlike the doctrine which she holds 
on this subject, to that which is taught us in 
the holy Scriptures. Instead of the righteous 
going immediately to heaven, and the wicked 
to hell, according to the teachings of Christ 
and the apostles, nearly all who die, whether 
righteous or wicked, descend at once into 
purgatory ; the torments of which are fully 
equal to those of hell itself; and here they 
suffer the most terrible agonies, till by the 



WITH ROMANISM. 



65 



prayers and masses of the priests (for which 
they must be liberally paid by surviving 
friends), or in some other way, the miserable 
beings are at length released. 

I will not dwell longer on the corruptions 
of doctrine, which are justly chargeable upon 
the church of Rome. It will be seen from 
the exhibition already made, that this cor- 
ruption is entire, extending through the whole 
length and breadth of the system of religious 
truth, defacing and fatally perverting all. No 
religion was ever invented, which professed 
nominally so much truth, and yet so entirely 
changed it, and robbed it of its power.* The 
corruptions of doctrine, held by this apostate 
church, are alone a sufficient reason why 
all true Christians should come out of it, and 
have no fellowship or connection with it. 



* See Appendix, .No. II. 



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NO FELLOWSHIP 



CHAPTER III. 

Third reason why Christians should have no fellowship 
with Rome — Her principles of morality — No faith with 
heretics — The end sanctifies the means — The obligation 
of oaths dispensed with — Illustrations of Jesuistical 
morality, 

The pernicious moral principles or maxims? 
which are not only tolerated but inculcated 
in the Romish church, constitute another 
reason why evangelical Christians should 
have no connection or fellowship with her. 

One of these maxims is, that no faith is to 
be kept with heretics ; or that it is right to 
break the most solemn engagements with 
those who are not of her communion. This 
diabolical principle has been not only avowed, 
but acted on, in a great many instances. 
Pope Gregory VII issued a decree prohibit- 
ing all Catholics to keep faith with excom- 
municated persons, until they made satisfac- 
tion. Pope Gregory IX enacted as follows: 



WITH ROMANISM. 



67 



"Be it known to all who are under the 
dominion of heretics, that they are set free 
from every tie of fidelity and duty to them, 
all oaths and solemn agreements to the contrary 
notwithstanding" This was interpreted as 
annulling the obligations of the marriage 
contract. The bishop of Simanca, some- 
time professor of law in the University of 
Salamanca, commenting on this statute of 
Gregory IX, says, " A Catholic wife is set 
free from her obligations to perform her mar- 
riage contract with her heretical husband." 

St. Thomas Aquinas taught, "that a Cath- 
olic might deliver over a heretic to the judges, 
even though he had pledged his faith to him 
by an oath" Pope Martin V, in an epistle 
to the Duke of Lithuania, says, "Be assured 
thou sinnest mortally, if thou keep the faith 
with heretics" Innocent VIII, in his bull 
against the Waldenses, says, " All those who 
had been bound and obliged by contract, or 
in any way whatever, to grant or pay any 
thing to them, should not be under the least 
obligation to do so, for the time to come." 
The great Council of Constance published a 



68 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



decree, setting forth the same doctrine ; and 
with a savage and ostentatious cruelty pro- 
ceeded to act upon it, in face of all Europe. 
They persuaded the Emperor Sigismund, who 
had pledged his word to John Huss, that if 
he would come to the Council he should be 
protected, that he was under no obligation to 
Iceejp his word with such an heretic; and 
accordingly Huss was committed to the flames. 
The above decree of the Council of Constance 
was distinctly recognized and ratified by the 
Council of Trent, and is now among the 
canons of the Romish church. 

When queen Mary of England was placed 
upon the throne, she solemnly promised to 
confirm every thing which had been enacted 
on the subject of religion, in the reigns of her 
father and brother, Henry VIII, and Edward 
VI. But she had not been crowned more 
than three or four months, before she broke 
her faith with the heretics, and commenced 
unsettling all that had been done, and per- 
secuting the reformers with fire and sword. 

Near akin to the principle already consid- 
ered is another of still wider extent and more 



WITH ROMANISM. 



69 



pernicious influence, viz., that the end sancti- 
fies the means. In other words, it is right to 
deceive, lie, slander, and even murder, if a 
good end can thereby be promoted ; and 
especially, if the interests of the Romish 
church can be advanced. This principle has 
not been so distinctly set forth on paper, as 
the other; but it has been approved and 
acted on, in thousands of instances. What 
are all the pious frauds and impostures, the 
false miracles and lying wonders, with which 
the history of the Romish church is disgraced, 
but so many illustrations of the maxim, that 
the end sanctifies the means ? # 

Immediately preceding the terrible Bar- 
tholomew's day, the Protestants of France 
were induced, under various false pretences, 
to come together to Paris, and the other 
principal cities. Here they were cajoled and 
flattered into a fancied security, till, at a con- 
certed signal, their Popish adversaries fell 
upon them, and cut off not less than 50,000 
at a stroke. Among these were some of the 
principal nobility, and the bravest and best 



* See Appendix, No. III. 



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NO FELLOWSHIP 



men in the kingdom. Yet this horrible act 
of treachery and cruelty, so far from being re- 
proved and condemned, was in the highest 
terms extolled, throughout Catholic Europe. 
In commemoration of it, the Pope ordered a 
Jubilee to be celebrated throughout Chris- 
tendom. 

And so, immediately previous to the dread- 
ful massacre in Ireland, in 1641, the utmost 
pains were taken, by seeming 'kindness and 
professions of regard, to remove all suspicion 
from the minds of the Protestants, and lull 
them into a profound slumber. " Visits of 
pretended friendship, 5 ' says one of the his- 
torians, "were never so frequently made, as 
at this time." In this way, the intended 
victims were deceived and disarmed, till Cath- 
olic vengeance came upon them to the 
uttermost. The perpetrators of this wick- 
edness, so far from being reproved by the 
Pope, were rewarded by him with a plenary 
indulgence. 

One of the most pernicious principles of 
the Romish church, is that by which she 
claims to dispense, under any circumstances, 



WITH ROMANISM. 



71 



with the obligations of an oath. In the text 
book of Moral Philosophy now used in the 
Romish seminaries, it is said, " There are 
seven causes excusing the obligation of an 
oath ; andjfire causes taking away all obliga- 
tion thereof" And again, " There exists in 
the church the power of dispensing with 
oaths " The Jesuit doctors affirm, that "the 
Pope can annul and cancel every possible 
obligation arising from an oath." The same 
doctrine is laid down repeatedly, and with 
great solemnity, in the canon law. 

The most common application of this de- 
testable principle has been in the case of 
sovereigns or rulers who, for any cause, had 
fallen under the displeasure of the Popes, 
and been deposed. In such cases, the oaths 
of allegiance from their subjects have been 
uniformly set aside, and they released from 
all farther obligations of obedience. Thus 
the subjects of Henry IV, of Germany, of the 
unfortunate King John, of England, of Henry 
VIII, and of Queen Elizabeth, were released 
from their obligations to their respective 
sovereigns, by the alleged dispensing power 
of the bishops of Rome. 



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Perhaps the most infamous example of the 
application of this principle was in the case of 
the emperor Charles V. By his coronation 
oath, he was most solemnly bound to protect 
the Moors in Spain. But that atrocious tyrant, 
Pope Clement VII, dispensed with his cor- 
onation oath, and compelled him either to 
banish, by millions, these miserable men, or 
to deliver them up to the infernal inquisition.^ 

Among all the corruptors of the preceptive 
and moral duties of religion, the Jesuits are 
entitled to bear the palm. And I the more 
readily refer to them, because this once fallen 
order is now restored, and is filling the world 
with its doctrines and influence. 

On the question, How much, and how 
often, is a Christian in duty bound to love 
God, the following answers have been re- 
turned by different Jesuit authors. One says, 

* The Pope's bull of dispensation was to this effect : " We 
do further release your Majesty from the obligation of the 
oath, which we are informed was taken by you, never to ex- 
pel the said infidels ; absolving you from all censures and 
penalties with regard to the guilt of perjury, which other- 
wise you might incur, and dispensing you, with respect to 
that promise, so far as it is necessary." 



WITH ROMANISM. 



73 



" It is sufficient to love him a little previous 
to the moment of death/' without fixing the 
precise time; another, that "it is enough to 
love him in the very moment of dying." 
Some think that God should be loved at 
baptism ; others, upon festival days ; and 
others, at seasons of contrition. One ex- 
presses the opinion, that " we are under 
obligations to love God once in a year, and 
that we are mercifully treated in not being 
obliged to do it more frequently ; another, 
that it should be done " every three or four 
years ;" another, " every five years ;" while 
a fourth deems "it probable that we are not 
rigorously obliged to love God every five 
years." A fifth thinks that " we are obliged 
to love him at some time, but does not know 
when and finally concludes that it maybe 
enough to observe the other commandments, 
without loving God at all, provided we do 
not positively hate him." 

" It is thus," says M. Pascal (to whom I 
am indebted for these quotations), "that our 
spiritual fathers have discharged men from the 

painful obligation of loving God with all their 
7# 



74 



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hearts. Indeed, they represent this exemp- 
tion from the duty ofloving God, as the great 
benefit or advantage, which Jesus Christ has 
brought down upon the earth." Well does 
the excellent Pascal cry out upon such sen- 
timents, " Strange divinity of our times ! 
This is the mystery of iniquity complete !" 

The Jesuits have taught that no action can 
be sinful, when there is the slightest proba- 
bility that it may be lawful. For example ; 
a Judge may decide a question of right ac- 
cording to one probable opinion, and reject 
another which, in his own estimation, is far 
more probable. So "a confessor must ab- 
solve a man who holds an opinion which he 
believes to be probable, although the con- 
fessor may 'know it to be utterly false." On 
the subject of probableisms, these doctors 
went so far as to assert, that "we may fol- 
low an opinion with a safe conscience, if we 
know with probability that it is probable" 

" It is no simony," say the Jesuits, " for a 
priest to procure a benefice, by promising 
money which he never really intended to 
pay ; because it is only a mock simony, - 



WITH ROMANISM. 



75 



which is no more real, than a counterfeit 
guinea is a true one." 

If one person hire another to beat his 
neighbor, or to burn his barn, and the per- 
son actually committing the offence absconds ; 
is he who instigated him bound to make 
reparation ? The Jesuit doctors answer, no : 
"Because no one is bound to make restitu- 
tion, if he have not violated justice ; and pray- 
where is any such violation, in requesting one 
to do another a favor?" 

In the opinion of the Jesuits, " it is lawful 
to use ambiguous terms, so as to convey a 
different impression from that which you un- 
derstood yourself." They also teach the 
lawfulness of mental reservations. Thus, 
" a person may take an oath that he has not 
done a particular thing, when in fact he has 
done it, by saying within himself, It was not 
done on some particular day ; or, before I was 
born." " This is, in numberless instances," 
say they, " very convenient ; and it is always 
just, when it is necessary to your safety, 
honor, or property." 



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In the moral code of the Jesuits, much 
stress is laid on a right directing of the inten- 
tion. Almost any act, however nefarious, 
may be done, if the perpetrator is but careful 
to keep his intention right. A son, for ex- 
ample, may lawfully desire the death of his 
father, and take measures to procure his death, 
if his intention in the thing be not to injure 
his father, but only to benefit himself, by 
getting possession of his inheritance. A per- 
son who makes a promise, without the inten- 
tion of fulfilling it, is not bound to fulfil it. 
Or if he binds the eno-asement with an oath. 
still he is not bound, if it was not his intention 
to bind himself, but merely to take an oath. 

From among the numerous moral (or rather 
immoral) maxims of the Jesuits, I select the 
following examples. 

"It is lawful," in particular circumstances, 
" to suborn a person to swear falsely." 

" It is lawful for an honorable person to 
kill an assailant, who would strike him with 
a cudgel, or give him a box on the ear to 
affront him, if he cannot otherwise avoid the 
disgrace." He may also kill one who " en- 



WITH ROMANISM. 



77 



deavors to do him wrong by reproaching 
him." 

" It is lawful for a monk to kill a man who 
pnblisheth great crimes against his order ; as 
it is lawful for all men to kill, with requisite 
moderation, for the preservation of their 
honor." " A monk may kill a woman with 
whom he hath sinned, for fear she should 
defame him." " If a calumniator will not 
cease to publish calumnies, you may fitly kill 
him, not publicly, but secretly, to avoid scan- 
dal." Again, " It is lawful to kill an accuser, 
whose testimony may jeopard your life and 
honor." "In all the above cases, where a 
man has a right to kill any person, another 
may do it for him, if affection move the 
murderer" 

" Servants may secretly steal from their 
masters as much as they judge their labor is 
worth, more than the wages which they 
receive." " A man is not bound to restore 
what he has stolen in small sums, however 
large may be the total." " He who, in tak- 
ing what is another's, doth him no injury, is 
not obliged to make restitution." 



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w A priest cannot be forced to give testi- 
mony before a secular judge." " The rebel- 
lion of Roman priests is not treason, because 
they are not subject to civil government." 

In view of the foregoing extracts, we wonder 
not at the strong language of the Parliament 
of France, in the year 1762, the time when 
it extirpated the Jesuits. " The consequences 
of their doctrines destroy the law of nature, 
and break all the bonds of civil society; 
authorizing lying, theft, perjury, the utmost 
uncleanness, murder, and all sins. Their 
doctrines root out all sentiments of humanity, 
excite rebellion, extirpate all religion, and 
institute all sorts of superstition, blasphemy, 
irreligion, and idolatry" 

The excuse of the Jesuits for thus setting 
conscience and common sense at defiance, 
and subverting every principle of morality, 
was, " We are compelled to it. Mankind are 
now so corrupt that, being unable to bring 
them to our principles, we must bring our prin- 
ciples to them. They would otherwise leave 
us, and might become totally abandoned. Our 



WITH ROMANISM. 



79 



casuists have found it necessary to consider 
to what vices men are most inclined, and to 
prescibe such agreeable rules as, without 
offending against truth, might make the com- 
promise pleasant and easy." 

If it be said, in reply to these specimens 
of Jesuitical casuistry, that the Jansenists, and 
others in the church of Rome, rejected such 
principles with abhorrence, and wrote ear- 
nestly against them, I have only to add, that 
in the controversy between the Jesuits and 
Jansenists, the Popes decided in favor of the 
former, and persecuted the latter ; thus mak- 
ing themselves and the church responsible for 
the teachings and doings of the Jesuits. 

And if it be further said, that this detestable 
morality has become obsolete, being no longer 
inculcated in the church of Rome, it pains me 
to be obliged to add, that this assertion is not 
true. Den's Moral Theology, which is now 
a standard work in the Romish seminaries, 
and is studied by candidates for the Romish 
priesthood, inculcates a morality scarcely 
differing in character from that of the older 
Jesuits. It justifies theft as in many cases a 



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venial sin ; equivocation and mental reserva- 
tion in the statement of facts, as being often 
necessary ; the punishment of heretics with 
death, when the church has power to execute 
it ; the forcible compulsion of all persons to 
be submissive to the Roman see ; the direct 
perjury of priests who may be examined in 
reference to facts made known to them in 
confession ; and practically inculcates, — by 
an affected examination into them by the 
priesthood, — such enormities, as we could not 
have supposed to exist on the earth. If any 
one doubts the assertions here made, let him 
procure Mr. Berg's translation of Den's, and 
examine for himself. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



81 



CHAPTER IV. 

Fourth reason why Christians should have no fellowship with 
Rome — Her authorized and detestable superstitions — 
Those connected with the Sacraments — Saints — Relics — 
Pictures — Penances — Holy water — Charms — Festivals ; &c. 

Another reason wiry Christians should 
have no fellowship or connection with Rome, 
grows out of her authorized and detestable 
superstitions. These superstitions began to 
encumber and deform the church, a Ion 2 
while before Popery was fully developed ; 
but from the sixth and seventh centuries to 
the present time, they have thickened upon 
her, and clustered around her, till nought of 
her original any longer attaches to her, except 
the name. 

In speaking of the multiform superstitions 
of Popery, I hardly know where to begin or 
end. Her whole seven sacraments, as at 
present administered, are little more than a 
tissue of superstitions. The sacred rite of 
8 



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baptism is so deformed by connected super- 
stitions, that scarcely a vestige of the original, 
simple ordinance appears. And then, what 
are we to think of the baptism of bells ; — of 
presenting them in the church, with their 
god-fathers, and god-mothers ; giving them a 
name ; and then baptizing them in the name 
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ? 
To call such a ceremony superstition, is not 
to do it justice. It more properly falls under 
the head of blasphemy.* 

The superstitions of the church of Rome 
are seen in almost every thing visible that 
pertains to her ; — in her saints, her relics, her 
crosses, her tiresome pilgrimages, her splendid 
robes, her mitres, tiaras, wax tapers, and 
crosiers ; in her processions, lustrations, pic- 
tures, and images ; in her vases, her incense, 
her holy wells, and holy water ; in her fasts 
and feasts, her flagellations and other auster- 
ities ; in the means prescribed for healing 
diseases, procuring the pardon of sins, ex- 
orcising evil spirits, securing the prayers and 
patronage of saints, and rescuing souls from 



* See Appendix, No. IV. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



83 



the pains of purgatory ; in her charms and 
incantations, her sacred days and holy places ; 
indeed, in her numberless religious rites, by 
far the greater part of which were borrowed, 
with slight modifications, from the ancient 
Pagan temples, and adopted into the ritual of 
a professedly Christian church. 

To speak particularly of all these supersti- 
tious observances would be both needless and 
impossible. I shall call attention to only a 
few of them. When the doctrine of transub- 
stantiation had been established, it was fol- 
lowed, as might be expected, with appro- 
priate rites. A splendid casket must be 
provided, in which the breaden god may 
reside, as in a house ; and lamps and other 
decorations must be added to these reputed 
domicils of a present Deity. This being 
done, the whole is borne in magnificent pro- 
cessions along- the streets, and is frequently 
elevated, that it may be seen and adored. 
An annual festival is also instituted in honor 
of the body of Christ, as present in the 
mysterious ordinance. 

Among the superstitions of the Romish 
church, a prominent place must be given to 



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the saints. I shall have occasion to refer to 
this ghostly multitude, in another connection. 
It is amusing to notice the different offices 
which these canonized worthies are reputed 
to fill. Thus St. Denis has the care of 
France ; St. James of Spain ; St. George of 
England; St. Andrew of Scotland ; St. Pat- 
rick of the Irish ; St. David of the Welch ; 
and St. Nicholas of the Dutch. He also has 
the care of the sea ; and is the patron saint of 
young females who wish to be married. St. 
Anthony presides over fire and inflammations , 
and is continually prayed to, on this account. 
St. Barbara takes charge of the faithful, in 
time of thunder and war ; St. Blass cures all 
disorders of the throat ; St. Lucia is appealed 
to in case of sore eyes, as St. Agatha is for 
the cure of sore breasts. St. Margaret pre- 
sides over midwives ; St. Lazaro is the kind 
assistant of women in labor ; St. Polonia has 
the charge of the teeth ; St. Domingo cures 
fevers ; and St. Roque the plague. In short, 
there are saints at Rome to preside over all 
diseases, and over all cattle. Not even the 
geese and poultry are left without a patron ; 
and some of the goodly company have charge 



WITH ROMANISM. 



of matters which it would be indelicate to 
mention. 

From the subject of saints, we pass nat- 
urally to that of relics. It would be endless 
to describe the various kinds of relics, which 
are treasured up in different places. In the 
church of All Saints, Wittemberg, was shown 
at the time of the Reformation, " a fragment 
of Noah's ark ; some soot from the fiery fur- 
nace into which the three children were 
thrown at Babylon ; a piece of wood from 
the crib of the infant Jesus ; some of the 
beard of the great St. Christopher ; and nine- 
teen thousand other relics, more or less 
precious." 

I extract the following account of relics 
from a catalogue published in 1753. In St, 
Peter's church at Rome, they have " the 
cross of the good thief, somewhat worm- 
¥ eaten ; Judas's lantern, a little scorched ; 
the dice used by the soldiers, when they cast 
lots for our Saviour's garment ; the tail of 
Balaam's ass ; St. Joseph's axe, saw, and 
hammer, together with a few nails that he had 
not driven ; St. Anthony's millstone, on 



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which he sailed to Muscovy ; a part of the 
wood of the cross, a little decayed, and a 
nail of the same." There are said to be 
enough pieces of the true cross, in different 
parts of Europe, to supply a town with fuel 
for a winter. In the same church, they have 
a " part of the manna in the wilderness, and 
some of the blossoms of Aaron's rod. They 
have an arm of St. Simeon, ill kept ; one of 
the virgin Mary's combs; and twelve combs 
of the twelve apostles, very little used. They 
have an arm, and some part of the body of 
Lazarus ; a part of the body of St. Mark ; 
a finger and an arm of St. Ann ; and a 
piece of the virgin's veil, as good as new. 
They have, moreover, St. Patrick's staff, 
with which he drove the serpents out of 
Ireland ; and some of St. Joseph's breath, 
which, when he was violently cleaving wood, 
an angel caught and enclosed in a vial. 
They have the head of St. Denis which, 
after it was cut off, he carried two miles under 
his arm ; a piece of the rope with which Judas 
hanged himself ; large parcels of the blessed 
virgin's hair; great quantities of her milk; 



WITH ROMANISM. 



87 



and what is more, remarkable than all, some 
butter ancP cheese made of her milk, which 
never decays." 

Among the relics preserved and worshiped 
in the Romish church, Bishop Hall enumer- 
ates, " St. Francis' cowl, St. Ann's comb, St. 
Thomas's shoes, St. Joseph's breeches, St. 
Martin's boots, St. George's scabbard, St. 
Crispin's paring knife, the parings of St. 
Anthony's toes, and the tail of the ass which 
carried our Lord." In France, they have 
four heads of St. John the Baptist ; and in 
Rome, says Dr. M'Cullock, "Jive pilgrims 
arrived on a certain occasion having each of 
them a foot of the ass on which Christ rode 
into Jerusalem." 

The following are among the relics, not yet 
enumerated, which are treasured up in dif- 
ferent places : " Some of the coals which 
roasted St. Lawrence ;" " the stones which 
the devil tempted our Saviour to turn into 
bread " the ark made by Moses in the 
wilderness, and the rod with which he per- 
formed miracles ;" " the pillar on which stood 
the cock which crew, when Peter denied his 



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Lord, together with some of the comb of the 
same cock ;" an " exact likened of the 
queen of Sheba " Solomon's drinking-cup 
" the towel with which Christ wiped the 
disciples' feet;" some " broken pieces of the 
water-pots of Cana and Galilee ;" " the 
cord which bound the Saviour," together 
with " a sponge full of blood which Joseph of 
Arimathea wiped from his dead body ;" 
" some of the blood of St. Stephen preserved 
on a bit of earth ;" " Judas's bag, and one of 
the thirty pieces of silver;" and the " iden- 
tical red slippers which Mary wore, when she 
visited Elizabeth." In Spain, France, and 
Flanders, they have no less than eight arms 
of St. Matthew, and three of St. Luke. In 
the Lateran church at Rome, they have the 
entire table on which our Lord ate the first 
supper ; while in Spain and Flanders, they 
have genuine fragments of the same table. 
They have also at Rome the entire heads of 
St. Peter and St. Paul ; while at Bilboa, in 
Spain, there is a large part of Peter's skull in 
the possession of the Augustines, and a frag- 
ment of Paul's skull in the convent of the 
Franciscans. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



69 



In the cathedral at Glasgow, they for- 
merly had a choice museum of adored relics. 
" They had a bit of St. Bartholomew's skin, 
and the Virgin's girdle, and a bone of St. 
Magdalene, and a bit of the manger where our 
Lord lay. and a vial of St. Kertigerivs blood, 
and four vials of the virgin's milk." 

"Jn 1668, Pope Alexander VII sent three 
chests of holy relics into France. In one of 
the chests, was found the hea°* of St. For- 
tunatus. A medical gentlem'ii present had 
the ere \#sity to examine tb« skull of the saint ; 
wj j\\o the amazement of all present, it .was 
Beftd to have been made of pasteboard. 
c £nere could be no mistake about it. It 
must be the real 7 *utt of St. Fortunatus, for 
the infallible 1 l had sent it as such ; and 
yet- it was * of pasteboard ! 

In th^^-v/ng list of relics I have omitted 
many ; some, because they were too grossly 
indelicate to .be named ; and others, because 
the bare mention of them involved blasphemy. 
There are a few others of too rare a charac- 
ter to be omitted. A monk of St. Anthony, 
returning from the east, brought with him 



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" the nose of the angel that appeared to St. 
Francis " a finger-nail of a cherub " a 
feather of the angel Gabriel some of " the 
identical rays of the star which guided the 
wise men to the infant Saviour " the buck- 
ler and sword of St. Michael, which he used 
in his battle with the devil, together with a 
vial of his sweat which the angel sweated on 
that occasion." " All these," said the monk, 
" have I devoutly brought home with me." 

These precious relics are severally certified 
to be genuine ; and many of them ha u^been 
proved to be such, by the most stup^ n St us 
miracles; — all which is piously belie vea ^ n( j 
their devout worshippers. I say worship, 
pers ; for the relics are worshiped, though 
not all with the same degree o^fervor. Thus, 
for example (as M'Cullock obberves), "there 
must be some difference in the w80£ ip offered 
to the parings of St. Edmund's toes, and that 
presented to the wood of the cross. The 
latter is divine worship, both as it represents 
Christ, and as it touched the members of his 
body, and was sprinkled with his blood 
while other smaller relics, " intended merely 



WITH ROMANISM. 



91 



to terrify witches, cure the diseases of cattle, 
kill vermin, and serve other necessary pur- 
poses, must receive a veneration suited to 
the nature of their uses." 

Among the pictures which are worshiped 
in the Romish church, next to those of the 
virgin Mary, none is more celebrated than 
that of St. Dominic, the father of the Do- 
minicans, and founder of the detestable Inqui- 
sition. This, it is affirmed, " was brought 
down from heaven, about two centuries ago, 
by the virgin Mary in person, accompanied 
by Mary Magdalene, and St. Catherine. 
Before this glorious picture," we are assured, 
" great numbers of the dead have been restored 
to life, and hundreds have been raised from 
the agonies of death. The dumb, the blind, 
the deaf, the lame, have been cured, and all 
sorts of diseases and mortal wounds have been 
healed." This venerable picture is thus 
described, by one who had often seen it. " It 
is but rudely drawn, without the help of art or 
pencil, sketched out by a celestial hand. The 
saint is represented with a book in his right 
hand, and a lily in his left. He is of a mod- 



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erate stature, of a grave and comely aspect, 
with a robe reaching down to his heels." 
In attempting to copy this picture, says our 
author, " the painters have not always been 
able to succeed ; because it frequently as- 
sumes a different air, and rays of light have 
been seen to issue from its countenance,' and 
it has more than once moved itself from one 
place to another." The wonderful stories 
respecting this picture are " all duly attested 
by public notaries, cardinals, prelates, gen- 
erals, and priors of the Dominican order ; and 
so generally are they believed, that, at the 
anniversary festival of the saint, more than 
a hundred thousand pilgrims have, in some 
instances, been present, to make their offer- 
ings before it." 

The austerities encouraged and practised 
in the Romish church I hardly know whether 
to class among her superstitions, or to call 
them by a harder name. They were intended 
to be as great as human nature could endure. 
They have often, exceeded the powers of 
nature, and brought the . deluded sufferers to 
their graves. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



93 



Among all the saints in the Romish calen- 
dar, none perhaps is more renowned than St. 
Simeon the Stylite. The following account of 
him is given by Dr. Murdock. After having 
been in a monastery several years. " his ab- 
stinence and voluntary mortifications were so 
excessive, as to draw on him censure from the 
other monks. He once swathed himself, 
from his loins to his neck, with a rigid well- 
rope of palm, for the space of ten days : 
which caused his whole body to fester and 
discharge blood. He then retired to an adja- 
cent mountain, and let himself down into a 
deep, dry cave. Being rescued from this 
situation, he went into a little cell, at the foot 
of a mountain, near Antioch, and there im- 
mured himself three years. During this period, 
having caused his den to be stopped up with 
earth, he remained buried for forty days, 
without eating or drinking. When discovered 
and disinterred, he was found nearly dead. 
He next removed to the top of a mountain, 
and chained himself to a rock, for several 
years. His fame had now become very great, 
and crowds of admiring visiters, of all ranks 
9 



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and characters, thronged around him. Being 
incommoded by the pressure of the multitude, 
he erected a pillar on which he might stand ; 
elevated at first six cubits ; then twelve, then 
twenty-two, thirty-six, and at last forty cubits. 
On the top of his pillar, which was three feet 
in diameter, surrounded by a balustrade, he 
stood night and day, and in all weathers, for 
more than thirty years. Through the night, 
and till nine o'clock in the morning, he was 
constantly in prayer, often spreading forth his 
hands, and bowing so low that his forehead 
touched his toes. At nine o'clock, he began 
to address the admiring crowd below, to hear 
and answer questions, to send messages, &c. ; 
for he took concern in the welfare of all the 
churches, and corresponded with bishops, and 
even with emperors. Towards evening, he 
suspended his intercourse with this world, and 
betook himself again to converse with God, 
till the following day. His clothing w r as a 
long sheepskin robe, and a cap of the same. 
His beard was very long, and his frame, as 
might be supposed, extremely emaciated." 
He died as he had lived, on the top of his 



WITH ROMANISM. 



95 



pillar ; nor did any one presume to approach his 
body, for the purpose of removing it, till after 
it had been dead three days. His pillar was 
so venerated, that it was literally enclosed 
with chapels and monasteries, for several ages. 

In this account of St. Simeon, I have 
omitted much that is gravely related by the 
Catholic historians, on the ground that it is 
fabulous, and utterly incredible. So much 
as has been stated is probably true. The 
story is introduced, to illustrate that branch 
of superstition (to call it by no harsher name), 
which consists in mortifying and abusing the 
body. 

Nor does this instance stand alone. It is 
but one among ten thousand others, of the 
vilest, extremest cruelties practised by deluded 
wretches upon themselves. St. Macarius 
used to perform penance, by going naked six 
months in a desert, and suffering himself to 
be stung with flies. The renowned St. 
Francis, as his biographer and eulogist as- 
sures us, called his body brother ass, because 
of the rigorous severities, continual whippings, 
and coarse diet, with which he treated it. 



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Indeed, if any one ever treated an ass in the 
manner that St. Francis did his body, he must 
have been guilty of mortal sin. 

It is recorded of St. Patrick, whether truly 
or not I pretend not to say, that he used daily 
to repeat one hundred and fifty psalms, make 
three hundred genuflections, and cross him- 
self eight hundred times. One third of each 
night he spent on his knees ; one third asleep ; 
and the remaining third he stood on his feet, 
immersed in cold water. 

Not long after his conversion, Ignatius 
Loyola, the father of the Jesuits, girded him- 
self with an iron chain, wore a hair shirt, gave 
himself a sound whipping three times a day, 
lay upon the cold ground, and indulged him- 
self in sleep as little as possible. He re- 
solved to continue these austerities all his life, 
to go barefoot to the holy land, and then 
choose some wild desert for his permanent 
residence. When he had begun to gather 
disciples at Paris, he used to lie abroad with 
them, in winter evenings, upon the snow and 
ice, gazing upon the heavens ; and then, 
stripping himself to the shirt, he would spend 
the night upon the cold ground. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



97 



About the middle of the thirteenth century, 
the societies of Flagellants originated in Italy, 
and afterwards spread themselves over a large 
part of Europe. Nobles and peasants, old 
and young, men, women, and children, pa- 
raded through the villages, towns, and cities, 
with no covering except a piece of cloth tied 
round the middle. Armed with scourges, 
they continually lashed themselves without 
pity, and the streets resounded with cries and 
groans. A king of France and the cardinal 
Lorrain have been known to join in the flag- 
ellation, clothed in sackcloth and armed with 
"the holy, sanctifying whip." This disci- 
pline was sometimes performed in the 
churches, and in total darkness ; when each 
devotee, — making bare his shoulders, and 
seizing his whip. — gave and received alter- 
nate blows, for the space of an hour. They 
expected in this way to appease the wrath of 
heaven, and procure divine favors for them- 
selves and others. Flagellation was thought 
to be of equal efficacy with baptism. At the 
first, these fanatics were highly revered and 
extolled ; but after a time they became so 
9* 



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troublesome, that their societies were sup- 
pressed. 

Among the superstitions of the Romish 
church, nothing is regarded as more indispen- 
sable than holy water. A vessel of it is placed 
at the door of every church, and no good 
Catholic can enter, without applying it to 
some part of his body. Perhaps it is not 
generally known, that there is an annual fes- 
tival at Rome, in which the horses, asses, and 
other animals, are duly sprinkled with holy 
water. This festival occurs in the month of 
January, when all the inhabitants of the city 
and neighborhood send up their animals to 
the convent of St. Anthony, where a priest, 
in surplice at the church door, sprinkles them 
with a brush, and receives a handsome com- 
pensation for his labor. An English traveller, 
who was there a few years ago (for the pur- 
pose of satisfying a superstitious coachman), 
had his own horses sprinkled and blessed, at 
the expense of one and six pence per head. 

The superstitions of the Romish church 
consist partly in charms and incantations. 
No thoroughly devout Catholic will go abroad, 



WITH ROMANISM. 



99 



converse with heretics, or read their books, 
till he has crossed himself, and invoked his 
guardian saint. Relics, in many instances, 
are procured and preserved, as charms to 
keep off devils, and drive away what is called 
bad luck. 

By every Pope, and usually in the first 
year of his reign, is consecrated a vast num- 
ber of little amulets, called Agni Dei. They 
are made of wax, balsam and chrism, each 
having stamped on it an image of the lamb of 
God. These are sought with great earnest- 
ness ; and whoever is fortunate enough to 
wear one of them thinks himself " safe from 
all spiritual and temporal foes, from all perils 
of fire and water, and from sudden and un- 
shrived death. They are a security against 
storms, thunder and lightning; drive away 
devils ; wash away old sins ; and confer new 
grace." 

The sign of the cross is specially potent 
in protecting the faithful from the power of 
demons. Thus we read of St. Walthen that, 
when at prayers, he was terribly haunted by 
the evil one. The demon appeared, " first 



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in the form of a mouse ; then of a pig, then 
of a barking dog or wolf; and then of a roar- 
ing, long-horned bull." But upon the saint's 
making the sign of the cross, the devil departed 
in a trice. 

The festivals of the Romish church are 
some of them ridiculously superstitious ; and 
others are made so, by the profane and ludi- 
crous manner in which they are observed. 
Dr. Brownlee thus describes "the feast of 
asses," which was formerly celebrated with 
great glee. " This festival commemorated 
the flight of Joseph and Mary into Egypt ; 
but the ass on which Mary rode was the 
most conspicuous personage in the group. 
The prettiest young lady in the town where 
the festival was held, was seated upon the 
ass, which she rode into the church, and up to 
the altar. High mass was then begun. The 
ass, as before instructed, devoutly kneeled at 
the altar. After mass, an ode was sung by 
the priests, in full chorus, to the ass ; # and 
the service was closed with a braying match 
between the priests and the laity. The 



* See Appendiy, No. V. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



101 



priests first brayed, in a fine treble voice, 
three times. This was responded to by the 
crowd, who, in full chorus, brayed three 
times. After this, the solemn and astonished 
ass was led away home to his hay and 
provender." 

Professor D'Aubigne thus describes the 
manner in which Easter was observed at the 
time of the Reformation : u The festival of 
the Resurrection claiming to be joyfully com- 
memorated, preachers went out of their way 
to put into their sermons whatever might 
excite the laughter of the people. One 
preacher imitated the cuckoo ; another hissed 
like a goose ; a third related the grossest in- 
decencies ; a fourth recounted the tricks of 
St. Peter, — among others, how, being at an 
inn, he cheated the host by not paying his 
reckoning. The lower orders of the clergy 
followed the example, and turned their supe- 
riors into ridicule." Proceedings of this kind 
were called " the Humors of Easter." The 
very temples were converted into a stage, 
and the priests into mountebanks. 



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It must have occurred to every one at all 
acquainted with the superstitions of the Romish 
church, that they were mostly borrowed from 
the ritual of the ancient pagans. The flag- 
ellations that have been described are but a 
copy of those which were practised by the 
heathen, in their sacred rites, and before their 
idols. The heathen had their long, showy, 
idolatrous processions ; and so have the Ro- 
manists. The heathen had their sacred waters ; 
and the Romish priesthood have the same. 
Who has not heard of St. Patrick's purgatory, 
in Donegall, Ireland ? To this lake and 
island great multitudes are sent by the priests 
every year, to wash away their sins ; just as 
the Hindoo plunges, for a like purpose, in the 
Ganges. Not a few of the temples in Italy 
were once pagan temples ; and every thing 
within them, and about them, bears a strong 
resemblance to their former heathen state. 
In the temples of Jupiter and the gods, there 
was the holy water, — the burning lamps, — 
the altars, — the sacrifice, — and the incense ; 
and the same are witnessed in the Catholic 



WITH ROMANISM. 



103 



temples now. # In the temples of old, there 
were rows of images, and votaries kneeling 
and beating their breasts before them ; and 
the same is witnessed in the large Catholic 
temples, at the present day. In short, the 
forms of worship now practised at Rome, are 
little more than a copy of the ancient forms, 
established under the dynasty of the heathen 
gods. Some few things may have been al- 
tered, but whether for the better or the worse 
it would be difficult to decide. 

And we have here an answer to the objec- 
tion, that Popery is not now that putrid mass 
of superstition and corruption that it was some 
centuries ago ; — that, in the progress of light 
and civilization, it has been reformed, and 
become a decent and safe religion. We deny 
that Popery has been essentially reformed, 
even in regard to its superstitions. Some of 
the grosser observances may have been laid 
aside, — such, for example, as " the Festival 
of the Ass but, in general, her idolatrous 



* If any doubt as to the sacrifices in the Romish temples, 
they will remember how much importance is attached to the 
alleged sacrifice of the mass. 



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rites and practices remain ; — those which were 
borrowed from the heathen temples, and which 
go to assimilate her, in point of religion, to 
the heathen themselves. 

This pretence of reform, which we hear 
suggested in behalf of the Romanists, is one 
which they do not admit. Their religion, 
they tell us, has been always good. Why 
should it not be ? It has been under the 
direction of an infallible earthly head, who 
could make no mistakes, and who would 
sanction no wrong thing. 

Rather than allow that his religion has 
changed for the better, the Romanist will deny 
facts that are as clearly established, even by 
Catholic historians, as any fact of history can 
be ; and will wonder that we do not take his 
word, in opposition to all other evidence.* 

In order to determine whether Romanism 

* The late Bishop Cheverus of Boston once denied; in 
presence of several ministers, that the church of Rome ever 
persecuted, — ever slew one man, or shed one drop of blood for 
religion. The persecutions in Spain, and the massacre on 
St. Bartholomew's day ; he denied, and pronounced them all 
to be the fictions of Protestants. " I have the name/ 7 says 
Dr. Brownlee, " of my reverend friend to give in evidence, 
who stood by, and heard him make these declarations." 



WITH ROMANISM. 



105 



has changed for the better, we must look at 
it, not as it exists in the United States, and 
in England, where it is subject to many 
restraints ; but where it has fall scope and in- 
fluence, and reigns much as it did five hun- 
dred years ago. Look at it as it exists in 
poor, priest-ridden Naples, and Italy, and 
Austria ; and see if it has lost any part of its 
superstition, or its ferocity. In these coun- 
tries, and in some others, the Pope is still 
looked up to as a sort of God upon the earth. 
He can create sins, and then (for money) 
can forgive them. He can bind or loose, 
pardon or punish, as seemeth good in his 
sight. 

Instead of becoming better, as it grows 
older, Popery, in some points of view, is grow- 
ing worse. She is sinning against increased 
light. She is setting herself with new energy 
against the reading and the circulation of the 
Bible. With the ferocity of a demon, she is 
even burning the Bible, in the face of the sun. # 

* A large number of Bibles was recently and publicly- 
burnt by the priests, in the town of Champlain, in the western 
part of the State of JS"ew York. 

10 



106 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



Wherever she can do it with impunity, she is 
still persecuting the faithful children of God. 
By every method in her power, she is op- 
posing the progress of the gospel, and the 
ultimate triumph of the Redeemer's kingdom. 
In all these ways, the church of Rome is 
filling up the measure of her iniquities, until 
WTath shall come upon her to the uttermost. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



107 



CHAPTER V. 

Fifth reason why Christians should have no fellowship 
with Rome — Her corrupt and pernicious practices — The 
characters of her Popes and clergy — Opposition to the Bible 
— Prayers only in an unknown tongue — Monasticism — 
Frauds and Impositions — Auricular Confession, Absolu- 
tion, Indulgences, &c. — Idolatries — Excommunications — 
Opposition to learning, &c. 

Another reason why the people of God 
should have no connection with the church 
of Rome grows out of the corrupt and idol- 
atrous practices, which she directly approves, 
or so far tolerates, as to make herself respon- 
sible for them. 

This church is responsible, certainly, for 
the characters of her Popes, — those whom 
she calls to the Pontifical chair, and allows 
to sit there, year after year, guiding the des- 
tinies of her vast spiritual empire. And what 
in general, have been the characters of the 
Popes ? That they have all of them been 
grossly immoral men, it would be too much 



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to affirm. But that many of them, — perhaps 
I ought to say the most of them, — have been 
little better than monsters of wickedness, is 
matter of undoubted historical truth. Of the 
Popes in the ninth century, Mosheim says, 
" The greater part of them, by their numer- 
ous vices, and all of them, by their arrogance 
and lust of power, entailed disgrace upon their 
memories." The same author, giving the 
history of the Pontiffs in the tenth century, 
says, " It is a history of monsters ; a history 
of the most atrocious villanies and crimes." 
And having made this broad assertion, he 
proceeds to verify it, by a long list of ex- 
amples. 

As we approach nearer to the times of the 
Reformation, the character of the Pontiffs was 
not at all improved. Rodrigo Borgia — after 
having lived in illicit intercourse, first with a 
Roman lady, and afterwards with her daugh- 
ter, by whom he had several children, — ob- 
tained the pontificate by bribery, in 1492. 
He took the name of Alexander VI, and has 
been called, not improperly, the Nero of the 
Pontiffs. On the very day of his coronation, 



WITH ROMANISM. 109 

he created his son, the notorious Caesar Bor- 
gia, archbishop of Valencia, and bishop of 
Pampeluna. He next proceeded to celebrate 
the nuptials of his daughter Lucretia, by fes- 
tivities of the most indecent character. Dur- 
ing the remainder of his life, and that of his 
diabolical son, the city of Rome, and even 
the Vatican, were filled with debauchery, 
rapine and wickedness. Nightly assassina- 
tions were of continual occurrence. Poison 
often destroyed those whom the dagger could 
not reach. Every one feared to move or 
breathe, lest he should be the next victim. 
Caesar Borgia was the hero of crime. The 
spot on earth where all iniquity met and over- 
flowed was the Pontiff 's seat. The dissolute 
entertainments given by the Pope, and his 
son, and daughter, are such as can neither be 
described nor thought of. The most impure 
groves of ancient heathen worship were noth- 
ing to them. In order to rid himself of a 
wealthy cardinal, that he might seize his pos- 
sessions, the Pope had prepared poison in a 
box of sweetmeats, which w as to be placed 
on the table, after a sumptuous feast. The 
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110 



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cardinal, receiving a hint of the design, re- 
moved the poisoned box, and placed it before 
Alexander. He ate of it and perished. His 
body, all swelled, black, and shockingly dis- 
figured, was carried to St. Peter's to be there 
interred ; the people crowding about it with 
joy, and congratulating one another that they 
were at length delivered from the terror of 
such a viper. 

The same year in which Pope Alexander 
died, Julius II was advanced to the pontifical 
throne. His character differed from that of 
his predecessor, but was scarcely less detesta- 
ble, on the whole. He has not unfrequently 
been denominated " the mad warrior." He 
made it his whole object, from the time of his 
promotion to the hour of his death, to extend 
the temporal dominions of the church, by 
force of arms and the blood of Christians. 
Two hundred thousand persons are said to 
have perished in the wars, carried on at the 
instigation of this furious and blood-thirsty 
Pope ; and as many more would probably 
have undergone the same fate, had not death 
intervened and prevented his disturbing the 



WITH ROMANISM. 



Ill 



repose of Europe any longer. By all the 
contemporary writers, Julius is charged, not 
only with mad ambition, but with immoderate 
drinking, which is supposed to have hastened 
his end. He would not abstain from wine, 
even when burning under the severity of a 
fever. 

Leo X, in whose time the Reformation be- 
gan, was a polite and learned man, but a 
known epicure and infidel, — perhaps an 
atheist. He spoke of religion as a fable, 
though a gainful one. Discarding the doc- 
trine of a future life, he gave himself up to 
sensual gratifications, without restraint. 

Paul III and Julius III were such horridly 
licentious characters, that no modest man can 
write or read their lives without blushing. 
By the former of these Popes, houses of ill 
fame were publicly licensed at Rome, and 
60,000 infamous beings yielded their immense 
revenue of wickedness into his treasures. 
This practice is still continued at Rome, and 
the licenses afford no small income to the 
" holy father." He is said to receive one 
third of the profits accruing from these 
licensed haunts of infamy. 



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Julius III was scarcely seated in the papal 
chair, when he bestowed a cardinal's hat on 
the keeper of his monkeys, a boy taken from 
the lowest of the populace, and who was the 
infamous object of his unnatural pleasures. 

In estimating the characters of the Popes, 
their blasphemous pretensions ought not to be 
overlooked. They claim to be infallible, 
and to exercise the prerogatives of God on 
the earth. Pope Martin V, on a certain 
occasion, speaks of himself in the following 
language : " The most holy and most blessed, 
invested with heavenly power, who is lord on 
the earth, the lord of the universe, the father 
of kings, the light of the world, the sovereign 
Pontiff, Pope Martin." And Pope Clement 
VII, in his letter to Charles VI of France, 
says, " As there is only one God in the 
heavens, so there cannot be, and ought not to 
be, but one God on the earth" — meaning 
himself. 

The pretensions of the Popes are manifest, 
not only in what they said of themselves, but 
in what they permitted their adoring syco- 
phants to say and to publish respecting them. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



113 



One tells us that " the Pope is the only vicar 
of God. His power is over all the world, 
Pagan and Christian. He has supreme power 
and empire over all kings and princes of the 
earth." Another says, " The Pope is univer- 
sal judge. He is Jcing of Idngs, and lord of 
lords. God's tribunal and the Pope's tribu- 
nal are the same.' 5 I quote the following 
expressions from the canon law : " The Pope 
is not a man." " He is a God, who has all 
power in heaven and on the earth" " None 
is like God, except the Pope." 

In some instances the Popes have claimed 
to do, what God himself has never done, — to 
confound the eternal distinctions between right 
and wrong, sin and holiness. Thus it is said in 
the canon law, " The Pope has the plenitude 
of power. He is above all law and right. He 
can change the substantial nature of things, 
and transform unlawful into lawful." And 
Cardinal Bellarmine says, " If the Pope 
should err, by enjoining vices or prohibiting 
virtues, still the church is bound to believe 
vice to be virtue, and virtue vice, unless she 
would wish to sin against conscience." Now 



114 



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what are we to think of persons, — poor, frail, 
mortal men, — who could hear with approba- 
tion the utterance of such sentiments, and 
could suffer such blasphemy to be enacted in 
the canon law of church ? And what are we 
to think of a church, which should tolerate and 
encourage such pretensions on the part of her 
bishops ? By so doing, the church of Rome 
has undoubtedly made herself responsible for 
the acts of her bishops, and has become herself 
a polluted, corrupt, and blasphemous body. 

This church is polluted, not only in the 
character of her Popes, but in that of her 
clergy. Since the period of the Reformation, 
and owing mainly to the influence of that 
event, the characters both of her Popes and 
clergy have been more reputable than for- 
merly ; but for centuries previous to the 
Reformation, the character of the entire cler- 
ical body was disgraceful in the extreme. 

In the first place, the great body of the 
clergy were deplorably ignorant. Why 
should they not be ? What need had they 
of sacred learning ? It was no longer their 



WITH ROMANISM. 



115 



office to explain the Scriptures, but to per- 
form rites, and grant letters of indulgence ; 
and for the fulfilling of such a ministry no 
great attainments in learning were necessary. 

But the clergy were chargeable with some- 
thing worse than ignorance. With few ex- 
ceptions, they were rapacious, warlike, cor- 
rupt, debauched. Dignitaries of the church, 
following the example of the Popes, preferred 
the tumult of camps to the service of the altar. 
To be able, by force of arms, to compel his 
neighbors to do him homage, was one of the 
most conspicuous qualifications for a bishop. 
Baldwin, archbishop of Treves, was constantly 
at war with the neighboring powers, razing 
their castles, erecting fortresses of his own, 
and thinking only how to enlarge his terri- 
tories. Every where the bishops were in 
frequent wars with the towns, the people 
demanding and struggling for freedom, and 
their spiritual masters requiring implicit obedi- 
ence. 

The clergy of this period were not only 
warlike, their morals were to the last degree 
corrupt. Priests openly consorted with aban- 



116 



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doned characters ; frequented taverns and 
houses of ill-fame ; played cards and dice ; 
and finished their nightly orgies with quarrels 
and blasphemy. The severe and unnatural 
law of celibacy, which was enforced upon all 
the clergy, gave occasion to such irregularities, 
that in many places, the concubinage of priests 
was not only permitted, but preferred and 
enjoined. The people chose that their priest 
should have a woman in keeping that so the 
females of their own families might be the 
more secure. In some parts of Germany, the 
priest paid to the bishop a regular tax for the 
woman with whom he lived, and for every 
child that was born in his house. Erasmus 
tells us of a certain bishop who received this 
tax from no less than eleven thousand priests, 
in a single year. 

" The holy Council of Constance," says 
Labbe, in his great work on the Councils, 
" was attended hj fifteen hundred abandoned 
females" who were the companions of those 
infallible doctors, w T ho made speeches in favor 
of Popery, and burned John Huss and Jerome 
of Prague. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



117 



When the Council of Lyons was dissolved, 
Cardinal Hugo made a speech to the citizens, 
in which he said, " When the holy Synod met 
here, your city contained but three houses of 
ill-fame. Now there is only one ; but that 
one comprehends the whole city, from the east 
gate to the west." 

Clemangis, a Catholic writer, but an honest 
reprover of the wickedness of priests, says, 
" The adultery, impiety, and obscenity of the 
priests is beyond all description." " They 
crowd into houses of ill fame, and spend their 
time in taverns, in eating, drinking, gambling, 
revelling, and dancing." " They fought, 
rioted, roared, and blasphemed God and the 
saints. From the company of infamous 
women, they would pass directly to the altar 
and the mass." 

What is here said of the character of priests 
on the other side of the water, is true of them 
at this day, in Central and South America. 
A gentleman says, he has seen them, "in 
their robes, at the cock- pits and bull-baitings, 
drinking, gambling, and involved in every 
species of licentiousness, publicly and un- 
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118 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



blushingly, as if there were no sin in any- 
thing they could do." 

But there are practices in which the church 
of Rome is more directly- concerned, than in 
the characters of her bishops and clergy. 
She has virtually locked up the Bible from 
the common people, forbidding them to read 
it, except in corrupt and mutilated versions, 
or in an unknown tongue. I know that this 
fact is sometimes denied, but the proof of it is 
incontestable. By the Council of Trent it 
was enacted as follows : " Whosoever, with- 
out having received a permission in writing, 
shall dare to read or possess a Bible, cannot 
receive absolution, until he has returned his 
Bible to the priest. Booksellers who, with- 
out the said permission, shall sell the Bible 
translated into the vulgar tongue, shall lose 
the price of their books, and will be liable to 
other penalties, according to the nature of the 
offence. The priests themselves can neither 
read nor buy a Bible, without permission from 
their superiors." 

Pope Clement XI, in his bull against the 
Jansenists, in the year 1713, condemned as 
heretical the following propositions : 



WITH ROMANISM. 



119 



" 1. It is useful and necessary to study 
the holy Scriptures, at all times, and in all 
places." 

" 2. The reading of the holy Scriptures is 
for all." , 

These propositions the Pope condemned, 
as " false, shocking, scandalous, seditious, 
impious, and blasphemous." 

In the year 1816, Pope Pius VII de- 
nounced the Bible Society as " a nefarious 
scheme " a pestilence ;" " a most crafty 
device, by which the very foundations of 
religion are undermined ;" " a defilement of 
the faith, eminently dangerous to souls." 
And so late as the year 1824, Pope Leo XII 
thus utters his malediction against Bible Soci- 
eties : " They stroll with effrontery through 
the world, despising the traditions of the 
fathers ; and contrary to the decree of the 
Council of Trent, labor to translate, or rather 
pervert, the holy Bible into the vulgar lan- 
guages of all nations." Thus has the highest 
authority of Rome pronounced it a dangerous 
and even a fatal sin, for God's people to 
translate and read, in the vulgar tongue, that 



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holy book, which he has made the rule of 
their faith, and which he has commanded 
them to search, that they may have eternal 
life. 

Next to the sin of taking away the Bible 
from the common people, is that of denying 
them the privilege of praying in their own 
tongue ; which is the same as to prohibit them 
from praying at all. Ever since the eleventh 
century, all good Catholics have been shut up 
to the use of the Romish liturgy ; and this must 
be used only in the Latin, — a language of which 
not one in a thousand of those who are com- 
pelled to use it probably understand a syllable. 
The consequence is, that the people pray in 
mere words, and words which to them have no 
meaning. Or, if they listen to the prayers of 
the priest, they understand nothing of what 
he says, and of course can have no intelligent 
communion with him. 

Among the rankest corruptions of the 
Romish church, I reckon the monastic insti- 
tutions. They are to be regarded as evils in 
themselves, and as almost exclusively evil in 



WITH ROMANISM. 



121 



their tendencies and results. By means of 
them,, great multitudes of human beings are 
shut out from the appropriate duties of life, 
and consigned over to solitude and indolence. 
IVor is this the worst of it. These professed 
recluses become, in a little time, proud, mo- 
rose, censorious, aspiring, and ready for any 
wickedness to which superstition or tempta- 
tion may incline them. 

The monks have ever been the most obse- 
quious supporters of the Romish hierarchy, — 
prepared for any service, however cruel or 
vile, the tendency of which would be to pro- 
mote the interest and authority of the Popes. 
If relics were to be hunted, or indulgences to 
be sold, or a crusade to be preached up. or 
the inquisition to be set in motion. — if some 
forged publication was to be issued, or some 
distinguished heretic to be assassinated, or 
some false miracle to be palmed off upon the 
world ; the monks were to be relied on for all 
such business. They were adepts at prac- 
tices such as these, and engaged in them with 
all their heart. 

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122 NO FELLOWSHIP 

In their endeavors to promote the interests 
of their respective orders, the monks were 
often chargeable with the grossest blasphe- 
mies. The Franciscans, for example, repre- 
sented " the founder of their order as another 
Christ, and as being, in all things, like to 
Christ^ They said that " the Franciscan 
rule was not composed by the wisdom of men, 
but by God himself; that every word of it 
was inspired by the Holy Ghosts They 
further insisted, " that those only were saved 
by the blood of Christ, who lived before St. 
Francis ; but that all who succeeded him were 
saved by the blood of St. Francis !'" " St. 
Francis," they pretended, "was the angel of 
the apocalypse, ascending out of the east, 
having the seal of the living God." Rev. 
7: 2. 

A full history of monastic abominations will 
never be given, till the day of judgment ; but 
more is known of them now, than can be 
uttered or written, and enough to stamp them 
with eternal infamy. 

The following is the testimony of the 
Prioress of a Catholic convent in Tuscany, 



WITH ROMANISM. 



123 



written near the close of the last century. 
" It would require both time and memory to 
recollect what has occurred, during the 
twenty-four years that I have had to do with 
monks, and all that I have heard tell of them. 
With the exception of three or four, all that 
I ever knew, alive or dead, are of the same 
character. They have all the same maxims, 
and the same conduct. They are on more 
intimate terms with the nuns, than if they 
were married to them. It is the custom now, 
when they come to visit any sick sister, that 
they sup with the nuns ; they sing, dance, 
play, and sleep in the convent. They deceive 
the innocent, and even those that are most 
circumspect ; and it would be a miracle to 
converse with them, and not to fall. The 
priests are the husbands of the nuns, and the 
lay brothers of the lay sisters. So iniquitous 
a race as the monkj no where exists. Bad as 
the parish priests are, they do not at all come 
up to them. The arts of the monks with 
the world, and with their superiors, baffle 
description." 



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"Do not suppose that this is the case in our 
convent alone. It is just the same at Lucia, 
at Prato, at Pisa, at Perugia. Every ivhere 
it is the same. Every where, the same disor- 
ders and abuses prevail. Let the superiors 
inspect as they may, they do not know even 
the smallest part of the enormous wickedness 
that goes on between the monks and the 
nuns." 

" Such," says Mr. Rockwell, from whose 
Travels the preceding account has been ex- 
tracted, " such is the testimony of the Lady 
Prioress of a Catholic convent, as to those 
authorized brothels of the Romish church, in 
which the priesthood find a compensation for 
the pretended self-denial of a forced celibacy. 
Such is the more holy state of which the 
Catholic clergy prate so much ; a class of 
men, than whom, if you will believe the gen- 
eral testimony of enlightened laymen of the 
Catholic church in southern Europe, there are 
none more completely sensual and profligate 
on the face of the earth. The statement 
given above as to the character of the convents 
of Italy in the last century, fully agrees with 



WITH ROMANISM. 



125 



the uniform testimony of Catholics in southern 
Europe, as to their condition at the present 
day." 

The. frauds and impositions chargeable 
upon the church of Rome are of various kinds, 
and beyond all computation numerous. Were 
I to give a full account of her forged publica- 
tions, and false revelations, and lying prodi- 
gies and miracles, with which she has at- 
tempted to impose upon the simple, and prop 
up her baseless fabric of superstition, it might 
truly be said, in the language of John, that 
" the world itself could not contain the books 
that should be written." 

Much of the power and authority of the 
Popes of Rome was based originally on the 
grossest forgery. I refer to the pretended 
Decretals of Isidore, which appeared in the 
ninth century, but which purported to have 
been written in the first age of the church. 
In this collection of alleged decrees, the most 
ancient bishops of the times of Tacitus and 
Quintilian, were made to speak in the bar- 
barous Latin of the ninth century. The cus- 
toms and constitutions of the Franks were 



126 



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gravely attributed to the Romans in the time 
of the emperors. Popes, who lived two or 
three centuries before Jerome, quoted freely 
from his Latin translation of the Scriptures. 
And Victor, bishop of Rome in the year 192, 
holds a correspondence with Theophilus, who 
was archbishop of Alexandria in the year 385. 
The impostor who fabricated this collection, 
endeavored to prove that all bishops have 
derived their authority from the bishop of 
Rome, and that he holds his immediately from 
Christ. He not only recorded all the suc- 
cessive acquisitions of the Pontiffs, but carried 
them back to the earliest times. The Popes 
did not blush to avail themselves, at once, of 
this contemptible imposture. For ages, this 
barefaced fabrication was the grand arsenal, 
from which weapons were selected to attack 
princes and bishops, and defend the towering 
hierarchy of Rome. 

The renowned saints of the Romish cal- 
endar,— those whose lives have been written, 
whose miracles recorded, whose relics are 
preserved with the utmost care, to whom 
temples have been dedicated, and for whom 



WITH ROMANISM. 



127 



religious festivals have been ordained ; — these 
pretended saints, in many instances, never 
existed. They are the mere fictions of some 
enthusiastic brain ; or more probably the in- 
vention of priests, with a view to make mer- 
chandise of them, and thereby to increase the 
wealth of the church. Many of the bones of 
these fictitious saints, which are kept as the 
choicest treasures, which are hawked about for 
money, to which the most mighty efficacy is 
attached, and by which the most stupendous 
miracles are performed, are supposed, with 
good reason, to be the bones of robbers, or 
even of wild beasts. And of the Romish 
saints which had an existence, their lives in 
many cases (like that of St. George of Eng- 
land), proved them to be any thing, rather 
than saints. They were the lives of impos- 
tors, traitors, robbers, and murderers.* 

A principal support of the Romish religion, 
more especially with the vulgar, consists in 
its miracles ; but these, like almost every 
thing else pertaining to it, are gross imposi- 



* Garnet, the author of the gun-powder plot, has been can- 
onized at Rome, and is known there as the holy St. Henry. 



128 



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tions. I give a few specimens of these pre- 
tended miracles. Thousands of the like 
character are piously recorded in those sense- 
less volumes entitled (Acta Sanctorum), Acts 
of the Saints. 

St. Wenefrid was a noble lady - of Wales. 
Being a nun, she could not yield to the suit of 
Caradoc, the young prince. Enraged at her 
obstinacy, the prince pursued her, and with 
a cruel blow cut off her head. Then occurred, 
instantly, three splendid miracles. L The 
earth opened under the feet of the young 
villain, and swallowed him up. 2. On the 
spot where the nun's head dropped, a well 
opened, and poured forth its salutary streams, 
by the side of which miracles have been per- 
formed to .the present day. 3. St. Beuno 
made his appearance on the spot ; took up the 
nun's head ; kissed it ; placed it on the bleed- 
ing stump ; covered it with his mantle ; 
prayed to the virgin : and said mass ;— when 
lo, St. Wenefrid was healed immediately ! 
Her head was on, just as usual ; and the only 
evidence of the transaction was the appear- 



WITH ROMANISM. 



129 



ance of a fine circle, like a thread, around 
her neck ! 

St. Andrew was once assailed by the devil, 
armed with an axe, and aided by several 
other demons. In this emergency, the saint 
cried out for St. John the apostle. Upon 
this, John instantly appeared ; and putting 
his back to the door to prevent all egress, he 
ordered the holy ones that attended him to 
chain down the devils, and scourge them 
soundly. This was done so effectually, that 
the poor wretches soon began to beg for mercy ; 
at which, says the historian, the holy St. An- 
drew could not refrain from bursting into 
laughter. 

St. Dominic, while sitting in his dormitory 
and writing by candle light, was assailed by 
the devil, in the form a monkey. Dominic 
ordered him to come and hold his candle, 
which, without a candlestick, the crafty saint 
put into his hand. Presently, the candle 
being burnt down, the devil's fingers began to 
be scorched, at which he wailed and howled 
most piteously. Nothing moved by this, the 
saint ordered him to hold on ; and the devil 
12 



130 NO FELLOWSHIP 

was compelled to hold the burning flame, till 
his fore finger was consumed up to the joint. 
St. Dominic then dismissed him, giving him a 
smart blow over the head, which sounded as 
though he had struck a bladder of wind. 

I give the following on the authority of 
the great cardinal Bellarmine. " St. Anthony 
of Padua had a dispute with a heretic, touch- 
ing the change of the wafer into Christ's real 
flesh. I have a horse, said the heretic, to 
whom I will give nothing for three days. On 
the third day, do you come with the host, and 
I will come with the horse. I will pour out 
some corn to him ; and if he turn from the 
corn to go and venerate the host ; then shall 
I believe. On the day appointed, all parties 
came. St. Anthony commenced, by address- 
ing a word of exhortation to the horse. ( In 
the virtue and by the name of thy Creator, 
whom I hold in my hand, T command and 
enjoin thee, O horse, to come and with hu- 
mility adore him.' No sooner were these 
words uttered, says Bellarmine, than the horse, 
unmindful of his corn, hastened towards the 
host, inclined his head, kneeled with his fore 



WITH ROMANISM. 



131 



feet, adored his Lord in the best manner he 
could, and thus confuted the heretic." 

The following transaction took place not 
long ago in Ireland. To stay the progress of 
what was called heresy, a miracle was pro- 
claimed ; and it was to be nothing less than 
casting the devil out of a poor maniac. On 
the day appointed, a stage was erected in a 
field, near a morass, on which sat the bishop, 
with his priests, in their robes. The maniac 
was produced, foaming, screaming, and gnash- 
ing with his teeth. The form of exorcism was 
duly gone through with, and all was painful 
suspense, — when the officiating priest, raising 
his arms, and holding one of them right over 
the head of the maniac, cried out, " Come out 
of him, thou devil" At that moment, a large 
black bird, like a raven, issued forth from the 
maniac's head, and flew away into the morass. 
The maniac leaped up full of joy, and was 
instantly restored. " A miracle ! a miracle !" 
was shouted by the crowd ; but a gentleman, 
who was on the stage, affirms, that the bird 
was no other than a crow, and that he saw it 
issue forth from the wide sleeve of the priest 



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Among the unscriptural and pernicious 
practices of the Romish church, I include that 
of private, auricular confession. We are 
required in' the Scriptures to confess our sins 
to God ; and so far as they are known, or are 
of palpably injurious influence, we are to con- 
fess them one to another. But the private 
inquisitions and confessions of the Romish 
church are not only unscriptural, but anti- 
scriptural. They are the invention of priests 
for their own private purposes ; and these 
purposes, often, of the most diabolical char- 
acter. The questions which the priest, on 
these occasions, is instructed to press upon 
the females of his congregation, — the married 
and unmarried, the young and the old, — are 
many of them such as no delicate female 
could ever consent to hear. Were I disposed 
to quote specimens of these priestly catechis- 
ings, I could not expect or desire them to be 
read. 

And then, when these infernal inquisitions 
are over, and the priest has possessed himself 
of all the secrets of all the families and in- 
dividuals in his parish, he has them completely 



WITH ROMANISM. 



133 



in his power. They dare not disobey or 
displease him, if they would ; for he has it in 
his power, by some vengeful accusation or 
disclosure, to ruin whomsoever among them 
he pleases. 

Closely connected with the practice of au- 
ricular confession is that of absolution and 
indulgences. The priest, having heard the 
confession of his votary, enjoins upon him 
some penance, on the performance of which 
he undertakes to absolve him. He pardons 
the sins which the penitent has committed, 
and restores him to the favor of God and the 
church. That the priest pretends actually 
and judicially to pardon sins, has been often 
denied in modern times ; but the fact is incon- 
testable. The following is the decree of the 
Council of Trent on the subject, which, with 
every Romish priest, is of more authority 
than the Bible : " If any one shall say that 
the sacramental absolution of the priest is not 
a judicial act, but only a pronouncing and 
declaring that sins are remitted to the person 
confessing, provided only that he believes, 
let him be accursed." It follows from this, 
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that absolution is not simply a declaratory, but 
a formal and judicial act of the priest, sitting 
as judge, and in Christ's stead remitting the 
penalty of the violated law to the deluded 
victim of his imposture. 

Nor is this the worst of it. The priest not 
only assumes the asserted prerogative of God 
in remitting past sins, he sells, for a sum of 
money, the liberty, the indulgence (as it is 
called), to perpetrate sin in time to come. I 
know that this fact, like the one last referred 
to, is commonly denied by the Romanists, but 
the evidence in support of it is overwhelming. 
It was this sale of indulgences which first 
excited Luther to resist the Romish church, 
and tear away the mask which concealed her 
abominations. For money, not only were 
the sins of the living pardoned, but those of 
the dead. The sufferers in purgatory were 
in this way released. The monk Jetzel used 
to boast that he had " saved more souls by his 
indulgences, than ever St. Peter did by his 
sermons." " There is no sin so great," said 
he, "that the indulgence cannot remit it. 
Even if any one should (which is doubtless 



WITH ROMANISM. 



135 



impossible) ravish the holy virgin mother of 
God, let him only pay largely, and it shall be 
forgiven him." " But more than this : indul- 
gences save, not the living only, but the dead. 
The very moment that the money tinkles 
against the bottom of the chest, the soul 
escapes from purgatory, and flies free to 
heaven." 

This matter of pardoning sins, and releasing 
souls from purgatory, has long been one of the 
principal sources of wealth to the Romish 
church. Some three hundred years ago, a 
book was published at Rome, entitled, " The 
Tax of the Apostolic Chancery," in which 
indulgences for all manner of sins were set at 
a fixed rate. For the satisfaction of the 
curious, I subjoin the following extracts from 
this scandalous book : 

£ s. d. 

u For a layman killing a layman, - - 7 6. 

For killing a father, mother, wife, or sister, - 10 6. 
For laying violent hands on a priest, without break- 
ing the skin, - - - - 10 6. 
For a priest to keep a concubine, - 10 6.* 

* In some places, all priests were condemned to pay this 
tax, whether they committed the offence or not 3 under the 
pretence that they might commit it, if they would, and that 
there ought to be no invidious distinctions. 



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For eating meat in Lent, 

For a queen to adopt a child, 

For procuring abortion, 

For taking a false oath in a criminal case, 

For robbing or burning a house, 

For violating a maid, - 

For incest with sister or mother, 



10 6. 
- 300 0. 



7 6. 

9 0. 

12 0. 

9 0. 

7 6." 



The book from which the above extract is 
faithfully copied, or rather translated, is no 
longer current even in the Romish market. 
Prudential considerations have thrust it out 
of sight. But the practices of which it treats 
are still perpetrated ; and perpetrated, it may 
be, with greater wickedness, than though the 
traffic in indulgences was regulated by a fixed 
standard. Every man who has travelled in 
southern Europe, or in South America, must 
have seen this inscription on the fronts of 
various churches : " Plenary indulgences sold 
here or, " The bishop of sells Indul- 
gences here." " An English gentleman," 
says Dr. Avery, " was with me at Naples ; 
and on reading the sign over an Indulgence 
shop, he w r ent in, and gravely purchased, for 
a small sum, an indulgence to commit any 
sin for an hundred days" 



WITH ROMANISM. 



137 



The idolatries of the Romish church are 
gross, palpable, and of continual occurrence. 
The noblest heathen temple now in the world 
is the Pantheon at Rome ; which, having been 
dedicated of old to Jupiter and all the gods, 
was piously consecrated by Pope Boniface 
IV, to the blessed virgin, and all the saints. 
And with the single change as to the dedica- 
tion of the edifice, it answers all the purposes 
which it did under its former Pagan masters. 
For as in the old temple, every one might 
find the god of his country, and worship that 
deity whose religion he chose ; so every one 
now selects the patron which he likes best ; 
and one may see different services going on 
at the same time at different altars, as the 
inclinations of people lead them to worship 
this or that particular saint. 

And as it has been done in the Pantheon, 
so also it has in all the other heathen temples 
that remain at Rome. One idol has been 
pulled down to set up another ; the name 
rather than the object of worship having been 
changed. Thus, the little temple of Vesta, 
near the Tiber, is now possessed by the blessed 



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virgin ; that of Fortuna Virilis by St. Mary 
the Egyptian ; that of Saturn by St. Adrian ; 
that of Romulus and Remus by saints Cosmus 
and Damianus ; and that of Antoninus Pius 
by St. Lawrence. And not only the temples 
of the ancient divinities, but in many cases 
their images have been transformed into those 
of the saints. A friend of mine (now de- 
ceased) who visited Rome a few years ago, 
saw there a stately bronze image of the apos- 
tle Peter, which, in the age of Constantine, 
was an image of Jupiter Olympus. 

The principal object of worship in the 
Romish church is the virgin Mary. More 
prayer, probably, is offered to her, than to 
God the Father, or to Christ, or to any other 
saint. It would be endless to quote the 
prayers and praises, addressed to the virgin, 
with which the Catholic books of devotion 
abound. # But the other saints, together with 
their pictures, images, and relics, are also 
made the objects of religious worship ; and 
some of them are honored even more than the 
Saviour. To give but a single instance of 
this : One of the most renowned saints in 



* See Appendix, No. V. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



139 



the Romish calendar is St. Thomas a Becket, 
of England. " In one year," says bishop 
Burnett, " there was offered on Christ's altar, 
in his church at Canterbury, about three 
pounds; on the virgin's altar, about sixty- 
three pounds; and on Becket's altar upwards 
of 863 pounds. The next year, the amount 
of prayers and donations stood thus : On 
Christ's altar, nothing ; on the virgin's, four 
pounds and a few coppers ; on Becket's, 
upwards of 954 pounds. " 

The following is the form of a prayer to St. 
Wenefrid, and may be taken as an example 
of Romish supplications to the saints: " O 
blessed St. Wenefrid, hear the prayers and 
receive the humble supplications of thy devout 
pilgrims ; and obtain, by thy pious inter- 
cessions, that God, of his infinite mercy, will 
be pleased to grant us a full pardon and re- 
mission of our sins, and a blessing to this our 
pilgrimage ; and that we may increase and 
persevere in God's grace, and enjoy him 
eternally in heaven." 

I subjoin one more example ; which is a 
form of prayer to St. Joseph. "O holy Jo- 



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seph, virgin spouse of the virgin mother of 
God ; most glorious advocate of all such as 
are in danger, or in their last agony ; and 
most faithful protector of all the servants of 
Mary, thy dearest spouse. I, A. B., in the 
presence of Jesus and Mary, do from this 
moment choose thee for my lord and master, 
for my powerful patron and advocate, for the 
obtaining of a happy death. And I firmly 
resolve and purpose never to forsake thee, 
and never to say, or do, or suffer any under 
my charge to say or do, any thing against 
thine honor. Receive me, therefore, for thy 
perpetual servant ; and recommend me to the 
constant protection of Mary, thy dearest 
spouse, and to the everlasting mercies of Jesus 
my Saviour." 

We have seen already, that the Pope is 
called, and calls himself, by the name of God. 
He is also adored and worshiped as God. 
Among the first acts, after a Pope's election, 
is that called the adoration of the Pope. 
" He is carried by men," says an eye-witness, 
" and placed on the great altar, in St. Peter's 
church, where the host (or wafer god) is 



WITH ROMANISM. 



141 



usually laid ; and there, as in Thibet, this 
man-god is adored, even as the host is 
adored." 

The following are specimens of the prayers 
offered to the wood of the cross. " O, cross, 
only hope ! hail ! In this glory of thy triumph, 
give an increase of grace to the pious, and 
blot out the crimes of the guilty." " O good 
cross, who hast obtained comeliness and beauty 
from the Lord's limbs ! Receive me from 
men, and restore me to my Master." 

The sacrament of the mass, after having 
been received, is made an object of direct 
worship. " Bread corn of the elect, have 
mercy on us ! Wine budding from virgins, 
have mercy on us ! Fat bread and the de- 
light of kings, have mercy on us ! Super- 
substantial bread, have mercy on us ! Word 
made flesh, and dwelling in us, have mercy 
on us ! * Sacrifice of all others most holy, 
have mercy on us ! Dreadful and life-giving 

* To understand this, it must be remembered, that the 
suppliant had now swallowed the wafer, changed into the 
body and blood, the soul and divinity of Jesus Christ 3 so that 
Christ, according to his understanding of it, was literally in 
his stomach. 

13 



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sacrament, have mercy on us ! Unbloody 
sacrifice, have mercy on us !" 

Another of the pernicious practices of the 
Romish church is their profane and blasphe- 
mous rite of excommunication. In illustrating 
this point, I shall not advert to the political 
mischiefs, which have been often attempted, 
and sometimes accomplished, by means of 
excommunication, releasing whole kingdoms 
from their obligations of allegiance, and put- 
ting a stop to all the instituted services of 
religion, not excepting even the burial of the 
dead ; but I will furnish an example of Cath- 
olic excommunication, as fulminated against 
a private individual. It seems that one of the 
Popes was the proprietor of some alum works 
in Italy, at a time when the process of man- 
ufacture was not generally known. One of 
his workmen left him, came to England, and 
disclosed the secrets of the trade. Where- 
upon the Pope thundered after him the fol- 
lowing bull of excommunication ; which, with 
the exception of certain parts too indecent to 
be written, I shall take the liberty to trans- 
cribe. " By the authority of God Almighty, 



WITH ROMANISM. 



143 



Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; and of the 
holy canons ; and of the immaculate virgin 
Mary, the mother and patroness of our Sa- 
viour ; and of all the celestial virtues, angels, 
archangels, thrones, dominions, powers, cher- 
ubims and seraphims ; and of all the holy 
patriarchs and prophets ; and of all the apos- 
tles and evangelists ; and of the holy innocents 
who, in the sight of the holy Lamb, are found 
worthy to sing the new song ; of the holy 
martyrs, and holy confessors ; and of the holy 
virgins, and all the saints, together with all 
the holy elect of God ; we excommunicate and 
anathematize this thief, this malefactor, A. B., 
and from the threshold of the holy church of 
Almighty God we sequester him, that he may 
be tormented, disposed, and delivered over, 
with Dathan and Abiram, and with those who 
say unto the Lord God, Depart from us, for 
we desire not the knowledge of thy ways ; 
and as fire is quenched with water, so let his 
light be put out for ever, unless he shall repent 
and make satisfaction. Amen. May God 
the Father, who created man, curse him. 
May God the Son, who suffered for us, curse 



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him. May the Holy Ghost, who was given 
to us in baptism, curse him. May the holy 
cross, which Christ for our salvation trium- 
phantly ascended, curse him. May the holy 
and eternal virgin Mary curse him. May St. 
Michael, the advocate of holy souls, curse him. 
May St. John, the chief forerunner and bap- 
tizer of Christ, curse him. May St. Peter, 
St. Paul, and St. Andrew, and all the other 
apostles of Christ, together with the rest of 
his disciples, and the four evangelists, curse 
him. May the holy and wonderful company 
of martyrs and confessors, who by their holy 
works are found pleasing to God, curse him. 
May the holy choir of the holy virgins, who 
for the honor of Christ have despised the 
things of this world, curse him. May all the 
saints who, from the beginning of the world 
to everlasting ages, are found to be the be- 
loved of God, curse him. May the heavens 
and the earth, and all things therein remain- 
ing, curse him. May he be cursed, wherever 
he may be, whether in the house or in the 
field, in the highway, or in the path,in the wood, 
or in the water, or in the church. May he be 



WITH ROMANISM. 



145 



cursed in living, in dying, in eating,in drinking, 
in being hungry, in being thirsty, in fasting, in 
sleeping, in slumbering, in waking, in walking, 
in standing, in sitting, in lying, in working, in 

resting, and in blood- 

letting. May he be cursed in all the powers 
of his body. May he be cursed within and 
without. May he be cursed in the hair of his 
head. May he be cursed in his brain. May 
he be cursed in the crown of his head, in his 
temples, in his forehead, in his ears, in his 
eye-brows, in his cheeks, in his jaw-bones, in 
his nostrils, in his fore-teeth, in his grinders, 
in his lips, in his throat, in his shoulders, in 
his wrists, in his arms, in his hands, in his 
breast, in all the interior parts of the very 
stomach, in his reins, in his groins, in his thighs, 

in his hips, in his knees, in 

his legs, in his feet, in his joints, and in his 
nails. May he be cursed in the whole struc- 
ture of his members. From the crown of his 
head to the sole of his foot, may there be no 
soundness in him. May the Son of the living 
God, with all the glory of his majesty, curse 
him. And may heaven, and all the powers 
13* 



\ 



146 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



that move therein, rise against him to damn 
him, unless he repent and make full satisfac- 
tion. Amen. Amen. Amen." 

Such, with necessary verbal alterations, is 
the usual form of cursing and blasphemy with 
which the rite of excommunication is pro- 
nounced, in the church of Rome. I need 
not follow it with comments. Its utter con- 
trariety to the spirit of him, who hath com- 
manded us to bless, and curse not, will be 
seen at a glance. 

The most harmless use of this terrible in- 
strument of excommunication, is when it is 
hurled at the heads of rats, mice, locusts, 
caterpillars, and other destructive vermin. 
When these creatures become troublesome in 
any place, the priest is expected to transmit 
to the bishop an account of the damage done 
by them ; whereupon the bishop orders the 
priest to repair to some eminence near by, put 
on his surplice, and sprinkle himself and his 
clerks with holy water. Having repeated 
some prayers prescribed by the bishop, the 
priest now walks over the damaged fields, and 
sprinkles them with holy water, in form of a 



WITH ROMANISM. 



147 



cross. He then commands the vermin to 
depart from the place immediately, under 
the penalty of being excommunicated and 
accursed. 

In the year 1738, Provence, in France, 
was much infested with locusts. Applica- 
tion was made in due form to the Pope, who 
sent his bull to the bishop, ordering them all 
to be excommunicated. The bishop obeyed 
the order, but the locusts paid no regard to it ; 
which gave much uneasiness to the farmers. 
An account of the matter was transmitted to 
the Pope, who, from the whole of his con- 
duct, seems not to have been a fool ; for he 
sent an injunction to the bishop to let the 
locusts alone till the beginning f November, 
and then go out with his priests and excom- 
municate them. Well knowing that the 
locusts seldom survive the first week in No- 
vember, he anticipated that his bull of 
excommunication, at that time, would not be 
without effect. 

Among the bad practices of the Romanists, 
I cannot avoid noticing that of making the 
temples places of refuge for all sorts of crim- 



148 



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inals ; thus literally turning what ought to be 
houses of prayer into dens of thieves. This 
custom, like many others in the Catholic 
church, was borrowed from the heathen ; 
and the practical results of it are deplorable. 
Says an eye-witness, u Assassins, fratricides, 
poisoners, incendiaries, deserters, robbers, 
fraudulent debtors, and other criminals, all 
took refuge in the same asylum ; were all 
equally well received ; and lived in a state of 
the greatest disorder. They frequently dis- 
turbed the performance of divine service, and 
maltreated the clergy. They committed crime 
after crime, insulting and sometimes wounding 
those who came to church. They kept a 
sort of school for the instruction of the young 
in robbery and swindling ; and sold contra- 
band goods, and stolen wares. They had 
prostitutes among them ; slept. _pe/e mele under 
the porticoes; and not un frequently had 
children born to them. They ate, drank, 
worked at their trades, and kept open shop in 
the churches. They wore concealed arms ; 
arrested passengers in order to ransom them ; 
and fired at the agents of the police, if they 



WITH ROMANISM. 



149 



chanced to pass by. They sallied out secretly 
to commit fresh robberies and assassinations, 
and returned within the sanctuary of the 
church, to enjoy, without fear, that protec- 
tion which the temple and its ministers af- 
forded them." Such was the state of things 
in many of the churches in Italy, only a few 
years ago. Strange as it may seem, the clergy 
favored the practice, and the Pojpe sanctioned 
it, because it supplied the churches with 
servants at a cheap rate, whilst from wealthy 
criminals, large sums of money were extorted, 
as the price of the protection which they 
received. 

The last of the bad practices of the Ro- 
manists which I shall have time to mention 
here, is their opposition to learning in general, 
and more especially to the general diffusion of 
knowledge. The fact of such opposition, I 
know, has been denied ; but the truth of it is 
written out on nearly every page of the history 
of this apostate church. What else is to be 
inferred from the opposition of Rome to the 
general distribution and study of the holy 
Scriptures? What else, from her taking 



150 



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away the liberty of the press ; and from her 
long " Index Expurgatorius," in which the 
reading of nearly every Protestant book is 
prohibited ? # It has long been the policy 
of the Romish church, not to enlighten the 
common people, but to keep them in igno- 
rance, under the impression that they would 
be more confiding and devout. " Ignorance," 
it has been said, ten thousand times over, 
"ignorance is the mother of devotion." 

So early as the sixth century, Pope Gre- 
gory the great arrayed himself most strenuously 
in opposition to all secular learning, and is said 
to have destroyed whole libraries of valuable 
books^ Writing to Desiderius, the learned 
bishop of Vienna, he says, " If it shall here- 
after appear clearly, that the reports which 
have reached me are false, and that you do 
not study vanities and secular literature, I 
shall praise God, who has not permitted your 
heart to be defiled." In the eighth century, 
Pope Zachary denounced a Bavarian bishop, 
for presuming to teach the shocking heresy, 
that " there are people living on the opposite 



* See Appendix, No. VI. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



151 



side of the earth from us. If he persist in this 
heresy," said the Pope to his legate, " strip 
him of his priesthood, and drive him from the 
church, and the altars of God." In the 16th 
century, Reuchlin, and Erasmus, and those 
who were engaged with them in reviving and 
restoring critical learning, instead of being 
encouraged by the church to which they 
belonged, were reproached and persecuted. 
" The New Testament," said the monks, " is 
a book full of serpents and thorns." " Greek 
is a modern language, newly invented, against 
which we must be upon our guard. And as 
to Hebrew, it is certain that whosoever studies 
that, immediately becomes a Jew." Even 
the school of theology at Paris, the most cel- 
ebrated at that period in the world, did not 
scruple to declare, before the Parliament, 
" There is an end of religion, if the study of 
Hebrew and Greek is permitted." 

At this time, a vigorous effort was made to 
improve upon the old, scholastic systems of 
education, and to banish those barbarous, 
jargonic methods which had been so long 
established ; but all attempts of this kind were 



152 NO FELLOWSHIP 

resolutely resisted by the Romish church, and 
more especially by the monks. 

In the next century (the 17th) Galileo was 
persecuted and imprisoned, for teaching that 
the sun is fixed in the centre of the solar sys- 
tem, and that the earth moves round it, in its 
orbit. The decrees of the infallible Popes, 
condemning and anathematizing the true 
system of the universe, remain unrepealed to 
the present day. 

Near the close of the 18th century, Leo- 
pold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, undertook to 
revive learning, and to promote a general 
reformation in his dominions. But with the 
exception of the bishop, he was opposed by 
nearly the whole body of the clergy. " The 
people," said they, " are the better for being 
ignorant in matters of religion." One of the 
most learned of the priests openly contended, 
that " it was dangerous to allow the younger 
clergy to investigate the evidences of religion, 
and become acquainted with the arguments 
which had been employed against it." 

The influence of the Romish religion upon 
the cause of learning, may be seen in the 



WITH ROMANISM. 



153 



comparative condition of those countries in 
which this religion has been long professed. 
Why, it may be asked, is not Spain as much 
enlightened as England ? Or Ireland as 
Scotland ? Or the south of Ireland as the 
north of it ? Or to bring an example nearer 
home. Why are not the blessings of learning 
and civilization as generally diffused in the 
Canadas, as in New England ? These coun- 
tries were settled nearly at the same time ; 
they lie contiguous; and no reason can be 
assigned why one should be so much more 
enlightened than the other, except that it is 
blessed with the true religion. 

But it is needless to argue a point which is 
so very obvious, and which has been so long 
established by the almost unanimous consent 
of the civilized world. It is to be numbered 
among the bad practices of the devotees of 
Rome, that they have so generally opposed 
themselves to the progress of light, and to the 
diffusion of knowledge among the people. 



14 



154 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



CHAPTER VI. 

Sixth reason why Christians should have no fellowship with 
Rome — Her dangerous political pretensions, and numerous 
and murderous political intrigues. 

Another reason why the people of God 
should have no fellowship or communion with 
the church of Rome, grows out of her high 
political pretensions y and the nefarious in- 
trigues to which she has descended, in order 
that these pretensions might be maintained. 
The political intrigues of the church of Rome 
commenced almost from the time of Constan- 
tine, and have continued, without cessation, 
from that period to the present. The object 
of them all has been, to extend the dominions ; 
to increase the wealth, the power, the pat- 
ronage, the prerogatives ; and to defeat and 
destroy the enemies of the Romish church. 

Of the extravagant political pretensions of 
the Popes, some proof has been already ex- 
hibited. They were limited by nothing but 



WITH ROMANISM. 



155 



the boundaries of the earth. Thus, one 
writer affirms, " The Pope's power is over 
all the world, Pagan as well as Christian. 
He is the only vicar of God, who has supreme 
power and empire over all kings and princes 
of the earth. They must bow down and 
submit their necks to him, who is prince and 
lord of all ; whom all emperors, kings, and 
potentates are subject to, and must humbly 
obey." Another says, " The Pope is mon- 
arch of all Christians; supreme over all mor- 
tals, from whom lies no appeal. He is, in 
all earthly jurisdiction, supreme ; he is the 
arbiter of the world." A third writer says, 
" The Pope has supreme power over all the 
earth ; over all governments and kings ; and 
if they resist him, he must punish them as 
contumacious." Nor are these the mere 
opinions of private individuals. The Popes 
and Councils have often affirmed and decreed 
the same thing, as we shall presently see. 

There was no serious attempt to enforce 
these lofty pretensions, previous to the time of 
Gregory VII, in the eleventh century. But 
to his ambition, as to his pontifical claims, 



156 



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there were no bounds. He undertook, in 
earnest, to reduce all the kingdoms of the 
world into subjection to the Popes, and to 
bring all the causes of emperors and kings to 
the arbitrament of an ecclesiastical court, 
which should assemble annually at Rome. 
He infused the same spirit into his successors ; 
so that for the next three or four hundred years, 
we find them in almost continual collision with 
the monarchs of Europe, more especially with 
those of England, Germany, and France; 
the Popes seizing every opportunity to set 
forth their pretensions, and encroach upon the 
civil power, and the civil power, resisting their 
encroachments, and endeavoring to retain its 
accustomed prerogatives. During this whole 
period, the Pontiff continued to urge, with men- 
aces, frauds and force of arms, that fundament- 
al principle of the canon law, that the Pope is 
the sovereign lord of the whole ivorld, and that 
all other rulers, in church and state, have so 
much power and authority as he sees fit to 
allow them, and no more. Resting on this 
principle, which they held to be immutable, 
the Pontiffs arrogated to themselves the ab- 



WITH ROMANISM. 



157 



solute power, not only of conferring sacred 
offices, but of giving away empires, and of 
divesting kings and princes of their crowns 
and their authority. Thus, in the 13th cen- 
tury, the haughty Innocent III " claimed 
absolute dominion, not only over the church 
and religion, but over the whole world. He 
assumed to create kings, and to dethrone 
them, according to his pleasure." In the 
14th century, Boniface VIII maintained, in 
a letter to the king of France, that " all kings 
whatsoever, and the French king in particu- 
lar, owed perfect obedience to the Roman 
Pontiff, and that not merely in religious mat- 
ters, but in worldly and secular affairs." 
And when the king of France refused sub- 
mission, Boniface wrote again, admonishing 
him that " the whole human race was subject 
to (he Pontiff; and that all who dissented from 
this doctrine were heretics, and could not be 
saved." Two hundred years later, Pope 
Pius V set forth the same doctrine. He de- 
clared that " Almighty God had appointed 
him, the Pope, prince over all nations, and 
14* 



158 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



all kingdoms, that he might pluck up, destroy, 
scatter, ruin, plant, and build." 

Every reader of English history has heard 
of the quarrel between Innocent III, above- 
mentioned, and the contemptible and unfor- 
tunate king John. Because the king would 
not suffer the Pope to place a primate over all 
England, in opposition to the wishes of him- 
self and his people, Innocent first laid the 
whole kingdom under an interdict; next he 
excommunicated the king ; then he absolved 
all his subjects from their obligations of obe- 
dience ; and finally gave away his kingdom to 
Philip Augustus, the monarch of France. 
Nor could the miserable John obtain absolu- 
tion, till he consented to resign his crown and 
kingdom into the hands of the Pope, and 
receive them back again, under the condition 
of paying a heavy annual tribute for them 
for ever. 

A contest similar to this had been carried 
on at an earlier period, between Pope Greg- 
ory VII, and Henry IV, emperor of Germany ; 
in the progress of which the Pope was, at one 
time, closely besieged and well nigh cap- 



WITH ROMANISM. 



159 



tured ; and at another, Henry was compelled 
to stand, for three days together, in the depth 
of winter, bareheaded, and barefooted, and 
meanly clad, at the gate of the Pope's castle, 
professing himself a penitent, and imploring 
pardon. 

But the most atrocious political intrigues in 
which the RomanisXs have ever been engaged 
have occurred subsequently to the Reforma- 
tion, and since the institution of the Jesuits. 
It was through their influence, and in the hope 
of recovering lost possessions to the church, 
that Europe was subjected to the terrible 
infliction of a thirty years' continuous war, by 
which an incalculable amount of treasure was 
wasted, and millions of lives were worse than 
thrown away. It was through the same 
influence, that the Netherlands were invaded 
and trodden down by the merciless Duke of 
Alva; until the people arose, at length, in 
their desperation, threw 7 off the yoke that had 
been fastened on them, and achieved their 
independence. It was the same Popish in- 
fluence which led Philip II, of Spain to pre- 
pare his " Invincible Armada," for the 



160 



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invasion and subjugation of Protestant Eng- 
land. Pope Sixtus V urged him on to this 
measure, and promised to give him the crown 
of England as his reward. It was Popish 
influence and treachery which projected the 
famous gunpowder plot, in the reign of James 
I, of England, by which the king and both 
houses of Parliament were to be instantly and 
terribly destroyed. The manner in which 
this diabolical transaction was regarded at 
Rome, may be learned from the fact, that 
Garnet, one of the principal traitors, has 
since been canonized, as I have before re- 
marked, and is now remembered under the 
appellation of St. Henry. 

I have spoken already of the treatment of 
the unfortunate king John. He was not the 
only monarch of England whom the Popes 
have undertaken to excommunicate. Both 
Clement VII and Paul III excommunicated 
and anathematized Henry VIII. Pius V 
excommunicated queen Elizabeth, and com- 
manded her subjects to rebel against her. 
Nor was excommunication all that was at- 
tempted upon Elizabeth. Her reign presents 



WITH ROMANISM, 



1 



an almost uninterrupted succession of Popish 
plots against her government and her life. 
In a proclamation, bearing date, Nov. 15, 
1602, she says, " The Jesuits have fomented 
plots against my person : excited my subjects 
to revolt ; provoked foreign princes to compass 
my death ; intermeddled in all affairs of state ; 
and by their language and writings, have 
undertaken to dispose of my crown." 

One writer enumerates no less than five 
conspiracies of the Jesuits against James I, 
before he had reigned a year. So late as the 
time of George I, a Jesuit, by the name of 
Plunket, projected a conspiracy, the object of 
which was the destruction of the king, the 
subversion of the laws, and the placing of the 
Popish Pretender on the throne. 

Henry III, of France, was assassinated by 
a monk whose name was Clement, in 15S9. 
The priests were in ecstacies, on account of 
his death. Clement was proclaimed a saint 
and a martyr, and a statue was erected to him, 
with this inscription, <; St. Jaques Clement, 
pray for us sinners." The reigning Pontiff, 
Sixtus V, pronounced a public eulogium on 



162 



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St. Jaques Clement, and on the act of regi- 
cide, which he blasphemously represented, 
from the chair of St. Peter, as comparable with 
the incarnation and resurrection of our Lord. 

The same kind of instrumentality which 
destroyed Henry III, succeeded, after several 
vain attempts, in plunging the dagger into the 
heart of the brave Henry IV. Ravaillac, his 
murderer, had been a monk, and was thor- 
oughly imbued with those regicidal principles 
which the Jesuits had been laboring to 
inculcate. 

The illustrious Prince of Orange, on whose 
head was set, by the sanction of the Pope, the 
prize of 25,000 golden crowns, and who had 
repeatedly escaped the bullets of the assassin,* 
was at length murdered, in 1584. Three 
bullets, which had been consecrated for this 
express purpose by his monkish butchers, were 
fired at the Prince. They entered his left 

* On one occasion ; three individuals, who had attempted 
his life, and who had succeeded in wounding him, were taken 
and executed. The remains of these three wretches, the 
Jesuits, after some years, gathered up, and exposed them as 
relics for public veneration. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



163 



side and passed through him, coming out at 
the right ; in consequence of which he almost 
instantly expired. 

His son Maurice was obliged, through a 
public life of more than thirty years, to be 
continually on his guard against attempts of 
this nature. His Popish adversaries had 
marked him out for destruction ; and in re- 
peated instances, they came very near 
executing their bloody purpose. 

I need not adduce further instances to show 
the political claims and character of the church 
of Rome. Assuredly, a professed church of 
Christ, setting forth such pretensions, and 
engaging in such nefarious projects to accom- 
plish them, should be abhorred and shunned 
by all the people of God. 

I know^t will be objected, that the facts 
here referred to are of ancient date ; and that 
the church of Roma has repented of them, 
and become more wise. But I would ask, in 
reply, Has she made any professions of re- 
pentance ? Has she condemned, in word or 
deed, the sayings and doings of her infallible 
Popes, from the eleventh to the sixteenth 



164 



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centuries ? On the contrary, has she not 
rather justified them, and persisted, to the 
extent of her diminished powers, in the same 
things ? No longer ago than 1809, she hurled 
the thunderbolt of excommunication at the 
heads of Napoleon, and the other rulers of 
France; informing them, in the true style of 
Gregory VII, that "their sovereignty is sub- 
ject to our throne" And so late as 1833, 
the present Pope (Gregory XVI) issued his 
bull against Don Pedro of Portugal, in which 
he says, * We do absolutely reprobate all the 
decrees of the government of Lisbon, made to 
the detriment of the church and her priests, 
and we declare them null, and of no effect" 

The disbanding of the Jesuits, had it been 
persevered in, might have been regarded as 
some token of repentance ; but this order of 
political jugglers and murderers has recently 
been restored, and is again filling the world 
with its doctrines and influence. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



165 



CHAPTER VTI. 

Seventh reason why the people of God should have no fel- 
lowship with Rome — Her persecutions — The right of per- 
secution asserted — The inquisition — Crusades — Persecu- 
tions in England, Ireland, Germany, Spain Italy, the 
.Netherlands, France — Persecutions of Jews ; and Moors- 
Rome still claims the right of persecution. 

Another reason why God's people should 
have no fellowship or connection with the 
church of Rome, grows out of her long- 
continued and merciless persecutions. This 
church is a persecutor by profession. She 
asserts the right, in the most solemn terms, of 
persecuting those who differ from her, even 
unto death. It was a fundamental principle 
of Jesuit morality, " Those whom our lord the 
Pope has condemned may be lawfully Jcilled 
any where"' Cardinal Bellarmine formally 
lays down the proposition, and undertakes to 
prove it, from Scripture, from the civil and 
canon law, from the Fathers, and from reason, 
that " heretics, condemned by the church, 
15 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



may be punished with temporal penalties, and 
even with death" His argument from reason 
is to this effect : " It is a benefit to the heretic 
to be sent out of the world as soon as possible ; 
because the longer he lives, the worse he be- 
comes, and if he is soon cut off, his hell will 
be so much the lighter." 

These decisions of individuals as to the right 
of persecution, are supported by those of the 
whole church. The following is one of the 
decrees of the fourth Lateran Council, enacted 
A. D. 1215 ; "Let secular powers, if neces- 
sary, be compelled by church censures, to 
endeavor, according to their ability, to destroy 
all heretics out of the lands of their jurisdic- 
tion." It proceeds further to enact, that if 
princes refuse to cut off and destroy heretics, 
" they shall be accursed, and their subjects 
shall be absolved from their allegiance." 
The Council of Constance issued their ter- 
rific anathema against the millions of heretics 
in different parts of Europe, and commanded 
all emperors, kings and princes to proceed 
forthwith in the work of their extermination. 
They did more than this. They set an example 



WITH ROMANISM. 



167 



of persecution, in committing the holy mar- 
tyrs, John Huss and Jerome of Prague, to 
the flames. The decrees of Constance were 
applauded and confirmed by the Council of 
Trent, which was the last of the Romish 
Councils, and is of the highest authority 
throughout the Catholic church. 

In speaking of the actual persecutions of 
this bloody church, I shall not undertake to 
write a martyrology. This would require, 
not a few pages, but extended folios. All I 
can do is, to present a brief sketch of some of 
the principal scenes of havoc and bloodshed 
for which the church of Rome is responsible. 

The Inquisition is an engine peculiarly 
Romish, the very name of which suggests 
scenes of torture and anguish, at which the 
blood chills, and the heart faints. L was 
instituted in the early part of the 13th cen- 
tury, by Pope Innocent III, and immediately 
commenced its murderous operations upon the 
poor Albigenses and Waldenses, dwelling in 
the southeasterly provinces of France. It 
was subsequently established in most of the 
Catholic countries in southern Europe, and in 



168 NO FELLOWSHIP 

\ 

the Portuguese provinces in the East Indies. 
Its object was the extirpation of heretics, — 
those who rejected the doctrines and disci- 
pline of the church of Rome. It continued 
in operation more than five hundred years ; 
during which time it accomplished the de- 
struction, — and that too, not by the summary 
process of war, but by the most terrible, 
protracted sufferings, — of not less than a mil- 
lion of human beings ! And were nothing 
more to be laid to the charge of the Romish 
church, what a terrible destruction was this ! 
O, who can count the groans, or conceive of 
the agonies, involved in the imprisonment, 
and trial, and torture, and burning, of this 
million of innocent, murdered victims! 

In countries where the Inquisition was 
established, the officers had their familiars 
or spies dispersed over the land. These, 
with the cunning and malignity of demons, 
mingled in all companies, invaded the sanctity 
of families, and dragged off all suspected per- 
sons to the cells of the Inquisition. They 
would fall upon their victims at noon-day, or 
at the midnight hour. They carried off the 



WITH ROMANISM. 



169 



wife and mother from the bosom of her hus- 
band and children. They singled out the 
blooming maid, and the hopeful youth, and 
the bride from the gav circle of her friends. 
" The greatest virtues and the highest respect- 
abilitv were no shield against these infernal 
invaders. Mere suspicion, or personal quarrel, 
or the glance of a voluptuous Inquisitor's eye 
on youth and innocence, were sure to send 
the horrid prison carriage, at the dead hour of 
night, to the person's dwelling, to carry the 
victim to this slaughter-house of virtue, and 
tomb of the living. And such was the terror 
inspired by these incarnate devils, that the 
parent or brother would hurry, with trembling 
steps, to the door ; and whenever the appall- 
ing words were heard, Open to the holy 
Inquisition — Deliver up your wife — De- 
liver up your daughter — Deliver up your 
son to the holy Inquisition; — that instant 
would the terror-stricken relative, without 
daring to ask one question, or breathe one 
murmur, or so much as implore pity, lead the 
trembling victims out, and deliver them over 
to these fiends. The bereaved father or hus- 
band would, the next day, go into mourning, 



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and speak of the dear lost one as — no more ! 
Gloom and melancholy were spread through 
the family, and the remains of hope were 
swallowed up in the bitterest despair. Even 
their tears and sorrows they were obliged to 
conceal, lest they should be the next victims 
of ghostly suspicion. 

As for the victims seized by the familiars, 
they were hurried into the dungeon cells, and 
loaded with chains. If females, they were 
placed often in the harems of the sacerdotal 
monsters, who revel on the honor, the peace, 
and happiness of families, and subject their 
innocent captives to disgraces worse than 
death." 

The prisoners in the Inquisition were never 
confronted with their accusers. Nor was the 
crime alleged against them ever made known 
to them. They must study it out the best 
way they could, and when called before their 
judges, must make confession. If they failed 
to do this, they were put to the rack, and a 
confession was extorted from them. " This 
procedure," says Voltaire truly, " makes all 
Spain tremble. Suspicion reigns in every 



WITH ROMANISM. 



171 



bosom. Friendship, and quietness, and con- 
fidence, are at an end. Brother dreads 
brother, and the father his own son. Hence 
the taciturnity of a nation endued with all the 
vivacity natural to a glowing and fruitful 
clime." 

I might now take my readers into the in- 
terior of the Inquisition, and describe to them 
the dark walls, and winding passages, and 
deep cold dungeons, and ponderous doors, 
and massy keys, and clanking chains. I 
might describe to them the various instru 
ments and methods of torture, — the tears, the 
groans, the unrespited miseries, the unpitied 
agonies, the black despair, which reign 
throughout those horrid prisons ; but I will 
not torture my own feelings, or theirs, by such 
a recital. Suffice it to say that the sufferings 
of the Inquisition, from beginning to end, have 
no parallel, this side of the infernal world. 
They are such as none but infernals could 
have invented, and none who were not hard- 
ened into the spirit of infernals could inflict. 
Thanks to the armies of Napoleon, and 
not to the Pope, that the dungeons of the 



172 



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Inquisition have been thrown open, and this 
most terrible, detestable institution has been 
abolished. 

I have said that the Inquisition was the 
means of destroying not less than a million of 
human beings. This estimate is far below 
that of many who have written on the sub- 
ject ; but I wish to place it within the bounds 
of sobriety and truth. The destruction of so 
many lives, and by such a process, — appall- 
ing as it may seem to us, — is but a small part 
of the reckoning to which the murderous 
church of Rome will be summoned, in the 
day when inquest shall be made for blood. 
The court of the Inquisition was too slow in 
its operations, to effect the destruction of the 
Albigenses and Waldenses, although the 
numbers apprehended were at one time so 
great, that it was impossible to defray the 
charges of their subsistence, or to provide 
stone and mortar to build prisons for them. 
Accordingly war was proclaimed against them, 
and two or three several crusades were 
preached up, with a view to accomplish their 



WITH ROMANISM. 



173 



destruction.* This army of crusaders con- 
sisted of not less than 300,000 men, — some 
say 500,000 ; let loose, and set on, like so 
many hungry wolves upon a flock of defence- 
less sheep. The bare thought of so many 
men, actuated by the mingled motives of 
superstition and avarice, ambition and lust, 
and filling the countrv of the Albigenses with 
carnage and confusion, during a period of 
twenty long years, shocks all the tender sen- 
sibilities of the soul. When the city of Beziers 
was taken by the crusaders, in the year 1209, 

* The favorite text of these preachers was Ps. 94 : 16. 
'' Who will rise up for me against the evil doers ? Or who 
will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity V And 
the application of their sermons usually ran in the following 
strain : u You see, dear brethren, how great the wickedness 
of these heretics is, and how much mischief they do in the 
world. You see, also, how tenderly, and by how many pious 
methods, the church labors to reclaim them. But with them, 
these methods all prove ineffectual, and they fly to the sec- 
ular power for defence. Therefore, our holy mother, the 
church, though with great reluctance and grief, calls together 
against them the Christian army. If, then, you have any 
zeal for the faith ; if you are touched with any concern for 
the glory of God 5 if you would reap the benefit of this great 
indulgence, viz., the remission of all your sins, and a si/re title 
to Paradise ; come and receive the sign of the cross, and 
join yourselves to the army of the crucified Saviour." 



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the Albigenses were so mixed up with the 
Papists in the battle, that the latter could not 
distinguish them. " Kill all" cried the 
Papal missionary Arnauld, " the Lord will 
know his own." Seven hundred Christians 
were slain by the Papists in one church. 
Sixty thousand perished in all. 

When Languedoc was invaded, 100,000 
Albigenses fell in one day. Houses were 
every where burned, females violated, and 
towns and cities laid in smouldering ruins. 
When the valley of Pragela was taken, the 
attack was made secretly, in the depth of 
winter, when the surrounding mountains were 
covered with snow. The persecutors rushed 
in upon the unsuspecting inhabitants, before 
they were aware that any hostile designs 
were formed against them. In these deplora- 
ble circumstances, the poor people did the 
only thing they could do, — they fled to the 
mountains, with their wives and their children, 
the unhappy mothers carrying the cradle in 
one hand, and with the other, leading such 
of their offspring as were able to walk. Their 
inhuman invaders pursued them, and slew 



WITH ROMANISM. 175 



great numbers before they could reach the 
mountains. Those who escaped were reserved 
for a more deplorable fate. Overtaken by 
night, they wandered up and down the snowy 
ridges, without shelter, or any means of sup- 
port, till the severity of the frost put an end 
to their sufferings. When the night had 
passed away, one hundred and eighty children 
were found dead in their cradles 1 Many 
of the mothers were found dead by their sides, 
and others were just on the point of expiring. 

In another valley, the invaders discovered 
the caves in which the poor people were 
secreted ; and having filled the mouths of 
them with wood, they set it on fire. By 
this means, four hundred little children were 
suffocated in their cradles, or in the arms of 
their deceased mothers. 

But I will not pursue these details of blood. 
The following is an extract of a letter, written 
by one of these poor Albigenses, in the midst 
of their terrible persecutions : 

u Brethren and Fathers : 

" Our tears are no more tears of water, 
but of blood ; which not only drown and ob- 



176 



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scure our sight, but oppress our hearts. Our 
pen is guided by a trembling hand. Our 
brain is made dry, in consequence of the 
many blows which we have received. Our 
souls are so exceedingly troubled, that we are 
not able to form a letter, answerable to the 
intent of our minds, or the strangeness of our 
desolations. . ... . Our persecuted 

people, having no way to flee, or to save their 
lives, have been most fearfully massacred and 
put to death. In one place, they cruelly 
tormented no less than one hundred and fifty 
women and small children, and afterwards 
chopped off the heads of some, and dashed the 
brains of others against the rocks. As for a 
great part of the prisoners which they took, 
from fifteen years of age and upwards, who 
refused to go to mass, they hanged some, and 
nailed the feet of others to trees, with their 
heads hanging downwards, till they died. In 
many of our cities, not one house remains 
unburnt. Those who were the richest among 
us are forced to beg their bread, or (what is 
worse) are weltering in their own blood." 



WITH ROMANISM. 



177 



It is computed that, in the first twenty years 
of the 13th century, not less than a million of 
the poor Albigenses were put to death, by 
command, or through the influence of the 
pretended Vicar of Christ. And why ? Not 
because they were turbulent citizens, or mal- 
efactors of any kind ; for their very enemies 
bore testimony to the holiness and innocence 
of their lives, and urged this as a reason why 
they were the more dangerous ;* — but this 
destruction was visited upon them simply 
because they would not bow to the proud 
bishop of Rome, and worship according to 
the standard which he had set up. 

The w r ars of which I have spoken termi- 
nated after about twenty years ; but the 
persecutions of the Albigenses and Waldenses 
continued, with little cessation, for more than 
three hundred years ; till at length it was 
terminated, through the intervention and in- 
fluence of Oliver Cromwell, near the middle 
of the 17th century. 

The burning of heretics commenced in 
England, in the latter part of the 14th cen- 



* See Appendix, .No. VII. 

16 ' 



178 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



tury. The first law on this subject was 
enacted under Henry IV ; and it continued 
to be executed on the poor Lollards and 
Wickliffites, down to the time of the Reforma- 
tion. During the short reign of the bloody 
queen Mary, two hundred and eighty-four 
individuals were burned to death in England, 
besides an almost equal number, who died 
from famine, imprisonment, and other hard- 
ships to which they were exposed, in conse- 
quence of their opposition to the Romish 
doctrines and rites. Among those who per- 
ished at the stake, were " five bishops, twenty- 
one divines, eight gentlemen, eighty-four 
artificers, one hundred husbandmen and 
laborers, twenty-six wives, twenty widows, 
nine maidens, two boys, and two infants." 
Of those who suffered for their religion, 
" seven were whipped, sixteen died in prison, 
and twelve were contemptuously buried in 
dunghills." The blood that was shed, during 
this fiery period, was some of the noblest and 
best in England. 

In October, 1641, commenced the great 
rebellion, and terrible massacre of the Protest- 



WITH ROMANISM. 



179 



ants in Ireland. I quote the following ac- 
count of it from Hume, who could have had 
no motive for coloring or exaggeration. 
" The houses, cattle, and goods of the un- 
wary English were first seized. Those who 
heard of the commotions in their neighbor- 
hood, instead of deserting their habitations 
and assembling together for mutual protection, 
remained at home, in hopes of defending their 
property ; and thus fell separately into the 
hands of their enemies. After rapacity had 
fully exerted itself, cruelty, and that the most 
barbarous that ever, in any nation, was known 
or heard of, began its operations. A univer- 
sal massacre commenced of the Protestants? 
now defenceless, and passively resigned to 
their inhuman foes. No age, no sex, no con- 
dition was spared. The wife weeping for her 
butchered husband, and embracing her help- 
less children, was pierced with them, and 
perished by the same stroke. The old, the 
young, the vigorous, the infirm, underwent the 
like fate, and were confounded in one com- 
mon ruin. In vain did flight save from the 
first assault ; destruction was every where let 



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loose, and met the hunted victims at every 
turn. In vain was recourse had to relatives, 
companions and friends; all connections were 
dissolved, and death was dealt by that hand, 
from which protection was implored and ex- 
pected. But death was the lightest punish- 
ment inflicted by those enraged rebels. All 
the tortures which wanton cruelty could 
devise, — all the lingering pains of body and 
anguish of mind, the agonies of despair, could 
not satiate revenge excited without injury, 
and cruelty provoked by no cause." 

In the progress of the rebellion, vast num- 
bers of wretched Protestants fled to Dublin, 
some "covered with old rags, and some 
without any other covering than a little twisted 
straw, to hide their nakedness. Some were 
so over-wearied with long travel, that they 
could only creep on their knees ; others were 
frozen with cold, and ready to give up the 
ghost in the streets. And when they arrived 
at Dublin, they found no relief proportionable 
to their wants ; the Popish inhabitants refusing 
to administer the least comfort to them, so 
that they appeared like living ghosts in every 



WITH ROMANISM. 



131 



lane of the city. Barns, stables, and out- 
houses were filled with them, and vet many 
lay in the open streets, where they most mis- 
erably perished.'' So great was the number 
who died in and around Dublin, that all the 
church-yards in the city could not contain 
them, and two large pieces of ground were 
set apart for burial places. ISot less than 
150,000 (some say 300,000) innocent, un- 
suspecting, unarmed Protestants fell in this 
terrible massacre, or were driven to starve and 
perish, in the cities and forests, in the coldest 
and most rigorous season of the year. 

And all this was done, under the abused 
name of religion. The priests were every 
where foremost in the slaughter, and every 
murder that was committed was represented 
as an act most meritorious in the sight of 
heaven. The whole bloody transaction was 
publicly justified and approved by Pope Ur- 
ban VIII, who, after the tragedy was over, 
wrote a letter to the rebels, granting them 
plenary indulgence, and a full remission of all 
their sins. 

16* 



182 NO FELLOWSHIP 

The persecutions in Germany, consequent 
upon the reformation from Popery, I shall be 
obliged almost entirely to pass over ; though 
many of them were of the most distressing 
kind. So late as 1732, more than 30,000 of 
the inhabitants of Saltzburg were (contrary 
to the express provisions of the treaty of 
Westphalia) driven from their native country, 
in the depth of winter, without clothes to 
cover them, or provisions for their journey, 
they not being permitted to carry away their 
effects. 

The Reformation not only spread into the 
north of Europe, but visited even Spain and 
Italy, and for a time promised to bring forth 
much fruit. But its progress was arrested by 
the terrible Inquisition, and the holy fire was 
checked by fires of a very different character. 
We can easily conceive what must have been 
the carnage of the common people in Spain, 
when Philip II is said to have witnessed an 
Auto da Fe in which twenty-eight of his 
nobility were burned at the stake before him, 
at one time. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



183 



For twenty years or more, the Inquisition 
was in vigorous operation in Italy ; and so 
well it did its work, that all traces of the 
Reformation at length disappeared. Down 
it went, with a shriek, like a drowning man ; 
and the waters closed over it, leaving scarcely 
a sign that it had ever been. It was not the 
practice of the Inquisition in Italy, to outrage 
the feelings of the people, by making a public 
display of its terrors. Drowning was the 
common mode of death ; but if the final issue 
here was less barbarous than in Spain, the 
solitude and silence with which it was ac- 
companied were calculated to inspire the 
deepest horror. At the dead hour of night, 
the poor prisoner was taken from his cell and 
put into a gondola, or Venetian boat, attended 
only by the sailors and a single priest. He 
was rowed out upon the sea, where another 
boat was waiting. A plank was then laid 
across the two gondolas, upon which the 
prisoner, having his body chained and a heavy 
stone affixed to his feet, was placed. On a 
signal being given, the boats rowed off in dif- 



184 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



ferent directions, the plank dropped, and the 
victim was instantly swallowed up. 

Under a previous head, I have spoken of 
the invasion of the Netherlands, by the mur- 
derous Duke of Alva. It should be borne in 
mind, that this was essentially a religious war, 
intended to crush and extirpate the rising 
spirit of the Reformation. Of the horrors 
which attended it, it is scarcely possible to 
speak in terms of sufficient reprobation. More 
than 100,000 families deserted the Low Coun- 
tries, in the progress of this terrible persecu- 
tion. The Inquisition was introduced here 
soon after its establishment, and was kept 
continually at work, so long as the Popish 
power prevailed. It is believed that, during 
the reign of Charles V, not less than 50,000 
persons perished in the Netherlands, in con- 
sequence of their defection from the church 
of Rome. As many more must have perished 
under the reign of his son, Philip II, before 
the independence of these provinces was 
established. 

When the town of Zutphen was taken by 
the Duke of Alva's nephew, he caused fifteen 



WITH ROMANISM. 



185 



hundred burghers to be hanged upon trees, or 
drowned in the Yssel, and ordered the town 
to be fired in eight different places at once. 
At Naerden, although the inhabitants opened 
their gates, and craved forgiveness, yet they 
were all murdered, with the exception of 
about sixty. The town of Oudewater being 
taken by storm, nearly all the inhabitants 
were slaughtered, not excepting the women 
and children. The mother, sister, and tw r o 
brothers of the celebrated James Arminius, 
were slain at this time. 

Persons accused of heresy were often con- 
demned with the most shocking indifference. 
One James Hessels, a judge, used frequently ♦ 
to fall asleep upon the bench. When the 
trial was over, and he was aroused to pass 
sentence, he would rub his eyes and cry out, 
To the gallows ! To the gallows ! — without 
knowing, perhaps, so much as the name of the 
person accused. 

The celebrated William Tyndall, who first 
translated the New Testament from the Greek 
into English, perished during this persecution 
in the Netherlands. He was apprehended at 



186 



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Antwerp, and afterwards strangled and burnt 
at Vilvoord. 

Time would fail me to trace the progress of 
Popish persecutions through all the different 
countries of Europe, as Portugal, Bohemia, 
Hungary, &lc. It is stated that in this latter 
country, not less than 3,000,000 of Christians 
suffered persecution, in the course of three 
centuries. 

But in no European country have the 
Protestants suffered so long, and so severely, 
as in France. Their persecutions commenced 
at the very commencement of the Reformation, 
under Francis I, and with occasional inter- 
ruptions, have continued almost to the present 
time. At two periods, in particular, the suf- 
ferings of the Protestants in France were 
such as to defy all description. The first of 
these was the terrible St. Bartholomew's day, 
in the year 1572. By invitations, flatteries, 
and various false pretexts, the more distin- 
guished Protestants throughout the kingdom 
were drawn together to Paris, and there lulled 
into the most perfect security, — till the tolling 
of the great palace bell ushered in the morning 



WITH ROMANISM. 187 

of the appointed day ; when suddenly, all the 
houses of the Protestants were forced open, 
the assassins rushed in, and a scene of mas- 
sacre and butchery commenced, such as the 
world had never before seen. The havoc 
continued in Paris for three days and nights, 
during which the Marshal of France paraded 
the streets on horseback, crying out to his 
minions, Let blood! Let blood! while the 
king, the queen, the royal family, the Catholic 
nobility, and more especially the priests and 
friars were urging on the work of death. 
This butchery was not confined to Paris, but 
extended to nearly all the provinces of 
France ;* so that in less than a week's time, 
more than a hundred thousand Protestants, 
in different parts of the kingdom were cut to 
pieces. When intelligence of this terrible 
catastrophe reached Rome, Pope Gregory 

* The Governor of the province of Auvergne, having re- 
ceived the king's order, returned the following answer, which 
is worthy of being recorded : " Sir, 1 have received an order, 
under your Majesty's seal, to put to death all the Protestants 
in my province. I have too much respect for your Majesty 
not to believe the letter a forgery • but if (which God forbid) 
the order should be genuine, I have too much respect for 
your Majesty to obey it." 



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XIII was so delighted with it, that he or- 
dered a solemn thanksgiving to God to be 
offered up in all the churches ; — and that the 
scene might never be forgotten, he caused a 
representation of it to be struck upon a medal 
of silver. 

The next period of extreme distress to the 
Protestants in France occurred about the 
time of the revocation of the edict of Nantes, 
in 1685. # Soldiers, headed by priests and 
friars, were at this time stationed in all the 
principal cities and towlis of France, and 
commenced plundering, insulting, abusing, 
tormenting the poor Protestants, by every 
method in their power. If any fled from 
their houses they were hunted and shot at, 

* The edict of Nantes, which was granted by Henry IV ; in 
1598 ; had been rendered most sacred, by the reciprocal oath 
of the whole kingdom. The observance of it was regarded 
as a fundamental law of the empire, — as a condition insepara- 
ble from the succession. It was a compact between the 
Romanists and Protestants, authorized by the public faith of 
the whole state, and sealed with an oath ; an edict inviolable 
and irrevocable in its nature, and out of the reach of all human 
power. By revoking it ; therefore, Louis XIV, gave a mem- 
orable illustration of the principles, — No faith with heretics — 
Hie end sanctifies the means — Oaths not binding in the church 
of Rome. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



159 



like beasts of the field. If any desired to flee 
to foreign countries, they found the coasts, the 
rivers, the highways, and bridges, all closely 
guarded, so that no method of escape might 
be left. The plan was, to force the Protest- 
ants to abjure their religion and embrace the 
Catholic faith ; or, in case of refusal, to cut 
them all off.* In the course of this persecu- 
tion, more than 500,000 families were plun- 
dered by the rapacious soldiers ; and not- 
withstanding all the vigilance which was 
exercised, as many more succeeded in escap- 
ing out of France, and went into exile in 
foreign lands. Great numbers migrated to 
England and America, and their descendants 
are with us to the present day. 

The persecutions of the Romanists have 
been levelled, not only at Protestants, but also 
at Mohammedans and Jews. In the 15th 
century, hundreds of thousands of Jews, in 
Spain and Portugal, were forced to receive 
baptism ; and more than 800,000 were driven 
out of these kingdoms. 



* See Appendix, INo. VIIT. 

17 



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In the year 1610, an edict was passed 
requiring the banishment of all the Moors 
from Spain. The ground of this measure was, 
not that they were not quiet, peaceable, indus- 
trious, and useful subjects, but solely that they 
would not renounce their religion, and embrace 
the Romish faith. In this persecution, as in 
all that preceded it, the Pope and the priests 
were the principal instigators. In the course 
of a single year, not less than a million of 
virtuous citizens were driven into exile, — to. 
the immense detriment, not only of themselves, 
but of the country which they abandoned. 

In short, it has been estimated, on a mod- 
erate calculation, that since Rome became a 
persecuting power, she has been the destruc- 
tion (including Moors, Jews and Christians, 
together with the natives of the East and 
West Indies, of Mexico, and South America), 
of not less than sixty-eight millions of human 
beings ! Nor does this include the exiled, the 
imprisoned, the tortured, the plundered, those 
who in a thousand ways were persecuted, and 
yet escaped with life. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



191 



And now what shall we say in view of all 
these things ? Here is a church claiming to 
be Christian, and exclusively Christian, and 
yet drenched in the blood of sixty-eight mil- 
lions of human beings ! It is obvious that 
certain things cannot be said. In the first 
place, the facts cannot be denied ; for they 
are known facts, — recorded on the page of 
history, — of Romish history, and Protestant 
history, — and gloried in at the times when 
they were perpetrated. 

Nor can the consistent Romanist admit, 
that his church has erred in these matters ; 
for his is an infallible church, which cannot 
err. Other churches, which have been be- 
trayed, at any time, into persecuting acts, may 
repent of their sin, and acknowledge it, and be 
forgiven ; but the Romanist can make no 
concessions. He must justify the dreadful 
persecutions that have been described, — at 
least so many of them as had the sanction of 
the Popes and the church ; and these include 
by far the greater part. 

It may be said, indeed, that the church of 
Rome has become wiser with age ; and 



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although she may not formally acknowledge 
her errors, it is not at all probable that she 
will ever be chargeable with the like again. 
Whether the church of Rome will ever again 
stain her hands with the blood of the perse- 
cuted, I pretend not to say ; but if she does 
not, it will be only because she lacks the 
power. Her doctrines, her principles, her 
pretensions, are the same ; and they will be 
acted out, as they always have been, just as 
soon as Providence brings round the fitting 
opportunity. What, I ask, are the obligations 
under which every Romish bishop is laid ; 
and that, too, by his oath of office ? " To the 
utmost of my power, I will observe the Pope's 
commands, and 1 will make others observe 
them. And I will impugn and persecute 
all rebels to my lord the Pope." The oath of 
the Jesuits is even stronger than this. The 
following is from the Jesuit confession of faith, 
imposed on the papists in Hungary, and pub- 
lished in German, at Berlin, in 1829. " We 
also swear, that we will persecute this cursed 
evangelical doctrine, as long as we have a 
drop of blood in our bodies ; and we will 



WITH ROMANISM. 



193 



eradicate it, secretly and publicly, violently 
and deceitfully, with words and with deeds, 
the sivord not excluded." 

The reason why persecution is not now 
attempted by the Roman Catholics, in the 
United States, in England, and in all countries 
where their religion exists, is thus set forth in 
the notes to the Rhemish version of the New 
Testament, which is high authority with all 
the devotees of Rome. Commenting on 
Matt. 13 : 6, these expositors say : " The 
good must tolerate the evil, when it is so 
strong that it cannot be redressed, without 
danger and disturbance of the whole church" 
But when " ill men, be they heretics or 
other malefactors, may be punished without 
disturbance and hazard of the good, they may 
and ought, by public authority, either spiritual 
or temporal, to be chastised or executed." 
The Romanists here proclaim publicly, that 
they will consent to tolerate us, so long as 
we are the strongest; but if the time shall 
ever come when they can kindle the fires of 
persecution, " without danger and disturbance 
of the church," we may then expect to be 
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" chastised or executed." And " the blood 
of heretics," say these Rhemish expositors, in 
another place, " is no more the blood of saints, 
than is the blood of thieves, mankillers, and 
other malefactors, for the shedding of which, 
by order of justice, no commonwealth shall 
answer." Notes on Rev. 17 : 6. 

The same persecuting doctrines are set forth 
in Dens' Theology, which, as I have before 
remarked, is a standard work with Romanists 
at this day, and is recommended and studied 
in their seminaries. The following proposi- 
tions are extracted from Dens, where they are 
formally laid down, and a labored effort is 
made to establish them. 

" 1. Protestants are heretics, and as such 
are worse than Jews and Pagans. 

" 2. By baptism and by blood, they are 
under the power of the Roman Catholic 
church. 

" 3. So far from granting toleration to Prot- 
estants, it is the duty of the church to exter- 
minate the rites of their religion. 

" 4. It is the duty of the Roman Catholic 
church to compel heretics, by corporeal pun- 
ishments, to submit to her faith. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



195 



" 5. The punishments decreed by the 
Roman Catholic church are confiscation of 
goods, exile, imprisonment, death." 

Such are the doctrines set forth in this 
detestable system of Theology, and inculcated 
upon young men, in the course of their pre- 
paration for the Romish ministry. 

Is it to be believed, therefore, that this 
church is becoming any more mild and leni- 
ent, with age, — that she is undergoing any 
real change, either of principles or practice ? 
The fires of persecution may be quiet just 
now, for the reason assigned above by the 
Rhemish expositors ; but in a change of cir- 
cumstances, which shall throw the requisite 
power into the hands of the Romish church, 
and bring round the fitting opportunity, will 
thev not blaze forth ag-ain with redoubled 
fury ? And is a church such as this to be 
trusted? Drunk with the blood of saints and 
martyrs, which has been streaming now for 
almost a thousand years, and professing the 
right and the duty to repeat the same things, 
whenever it can be done " without hazard and 
disturbance is such a body to be trusted ? 



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Is she to be regarded as a church of Christ, 
and received into communion and fellowship 
as such ? Or shall we not rather listen to 
the voice of the Spirit, crying, " Come out of 
her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her 
sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues ?" 



WITH ROMANISM. 



197 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Eighth reason why the people of God should have no fellow- 
ship with Rome — The manner in which she is regarded 
and spoken of in the Scriptures. In Dan. 7 : 8 ; 20 — 25. 
In 2 Thess. 2 : 3—10. In Rev. 13th and 17th chapters. 

That the apostate church of Rome would 
be referred to in the writings of the prophets, 
is no more than might reasonably have been 
expected. That she actually is referred to, 
and in such a manner as to point out her real 
character, and warn all who believe and trust 
in God to have no fellowship or connection 
with her, there is, with me, not the shadow of 
a doubt. 

In vindicating this assertion, I shall not 
refer to all the passages which might, with 
propriety, be adduced, but shall direct atten- 
tion to those only which to my own mind 
seem plain and indubitable. Nor of these 
shall I think it necessary to go into a full, 
historical elucidation, but shall briefly state 



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such facts as may serve to settle the meaning 
of the passages referred to. 

The first passage to be considered is recorded 
in the seventh chapter of Daniel. It is his 
vision of the four beasts, with the interpreta- 
tion of the vision by an angel. " The first 
beast was like a lion, and had eagle's wings 
denoting, undoubtedly, the Babylonish empire, 
which, at the date of the prophecy, was in 
the zenith of its prosperity. The second 
beast was like a bear, having three ribs between 
his teeth ; signifying the empire of the Medes 
and Persians, by which that of Babylon was 
overthrown. The third beast was like a 
leopard, and had wings on its back ; setting 
forth the empire of Alexander, and the rapidity 
of his conquests. The fourth beast, — " dread- 
ful, and terrible, and strong exceedingly, hav- 
ing great iron teeth, which devoured, and 
brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with 
his feet," — was the mighty empire of Rome. 
The ten horns of this latter beast denote the 
ten kingdoms into which the Roman empire, 
at its overthrow, was divided. After these, 
and among them, springs up a little horn, the 



WITH ROMANISM. 



199 



characteristics of which will require a more 
full consideration. In the first place, this 
little horn plucks up three of the other horns 
or kingdoms. Then it has " eyes like a man, 
and a mouth speaking great things — or, as 
the angel interprets it, it is to " speak great 
words against the Most High, and wear out 
the saints of the Most High, and think to 
change times and laws;" and the saints, for 
a long time, are to be " given into its hand." 

Who then is this little homl What power 
or government is here intended ? I have no 
hesitation in saying that the power here sym- 
bolized is that of the Popes of Rome. The 
bishop of Rome became a temporal prince, a 
horn, about the year 755, — subsequent to the 
division of the Roman empire into ten king- 
doms. In the very act of becoming a horn, 
he subverted one of these ten kingdoms ; and 
in a little time after, by the help of Charle- 
magne and his son, he subverted two more.* 
In token of this, the Popes, from that period, 
have worn a triple crown. 



* See Appendix ; Tso. IX. 



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This horn was originally a little one. The 
temporal dominions of the Pope were, at first, 
of but small extent. 

It was diverse from the other horns. The 
power of the Pope was of a peculiar charac- 
ter, partly civil, and partly ecclesiastical. 

It had " eyes like a man ;" denoting the 
foresight and cunning of the Popes, — always 
intent upon self-aggrandizement, watching to 
promote their own interests. 

This horn had also " a mouth speaking 
great things." And who, in this world, has 
ever put forth such pretensions as the Popes, — 
boasting of their supremacy, — thundering out 
their bulls and anathemas, — excommunicating 
princes, — and absolving subjects from their 
oaths of allegiance ? 

The look of the little horn was " more 
stout than that of his fellows." The Pope 
assumes a superiority, not only over his fel- 
low-bishops, but over all civil rulers, emperors, 
and kings, blasphemously styling himself 
"king of kings, and lord of lords." 

" And he shall speak great words against 
the Most High," or (in another rendering) as 



WITH ROMANISM. 



201 



the Most High. And such words the Popes 
have been constantly speaking, for the last 
thousand years ; arrogating to themselves 
Divine titles, attributes and honors ; exacting 
obedience to their arbitrary, unreasonable, and 
unscriptural decrees ; insulting and oppressing 
man, and blaspheming God. 

"He shall wear out the saints of the Most 
High — a thing which the Popes have most 
signally done, by wars, massacres, inquisitions, 
persecutions, and every form of injury and 
death. 

" And he shall think to change times and 
laws." The Popes have appointed fasts, and 
feasts, and sacred days in abundance, which 
have no authority in the word of God. They 
have also changed many of the laws of God ; 
granting pardons and indulgences which God 
has not authorized ; instituting new modes of 
worship ; imposing new articles of faith ; en- 
joining new rules of conduct ; and reversing, 
at pleasure, the laws both of God and man. 

The saints are to be given into the hands 
of the little horn, "until a time, times, and 
the dividing of time." Respecting the precise 
18 



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time here denoted, I shall have occasion to 
speak in another place. Suffice it to say here, 
that the people of God were, for a long time, 
given into the hand of the Pope of Rome, to 
tyrannize over them as he pleased. To some 
extent, the same is true still. The time of 
their complete deliverance has not yet come. 

And now, in view of all these descriptive 
traits to which I have referred, who can doubt 
as to the proper signification of "the little 
horn ?" Is not the power denoted by this 
terrific symbol perfectly manifest ? The do- 
minion of the Popes sprung up in the heart 
of the old Roman empire, after the division 
of this empire into ten kingdoms. By it three 
of these kingdoms were soon swallowed up. 
And all the attributes ascribed to this power 
by the pen of prophecy, more than a thousand 
years before it existed, have been literally 
verified in the Popes of Rome. 

The second passage of Scripture in which, 
as I think, there is a manifest reference to 
Popery, is in the second epistle of Paul to the 
Thessalonians. Having assured his brethren 
that the second coming of Christ was not to 
be anticipated as near at hand, Paul goes on 



WITH ROMANISM. 



203 



to say, "Let no man deceive you, by any 
means ; for that day shall not come, except 
there come a falling away first, and that man 
of sin be revealed, the son of perdition ; who 
opposeth, and exalteth himself above all that 
is called God, or is worshiped, so that he, as 
God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing 
himself that he is God. Remember ye not, 
that when I was yet with you, I told you 
these things. And now ye know what with- 
holdeth, that he might be revealed in his 
time. For the mystery of iniquity doth al- 
ready work ; only he who now letteth will 
let, until he be taken out of the way. And 
then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the 
Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his 
mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness 
of his coming ; even him, whose coming is 
after the working of Satan, with all power, 
and signs, and lying wonders, and with all 
deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that 
perish." (Verses 3 — 10.) 

There is another passage, parallel in part to 
this, and illustrative of it, in the first epistle of 
Paul to Timothy. " Now the Spirit speaketh 



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expressly that in the latter times, some shall 
depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing 
spirits and doctrines of devils ; speaking lies 
in hypocrisy ; having their conscience seared 
with a hot iron ; forbidding to marry, and 
commanding to abstain from meats, which 
God hath created to be received with thanks- 
giving, of them which believe and know the 
truth/' (Chap. 4: 1—3.) 

It may be proper to consider these two pas- 
sages together. And the main question to be 
determined is, What personage ox power is 
here set forth, under the appellations of " the 
Man of sin," " the Son of perdition," the 
" Wicked " one, &c. ? I have no hesitancy 
in affirming that this impious power is no other 
than the hierarchy of Rome ; or in other words, 
the Popedom. And this will be evident, if 
we compare the language of the prophecy 
with the known traits and attributes of Popery. 

In the first place, the power spoken of in 
these passages was to appear in the church 
of God, and to be "a falling aivay" — an 
apostasy. " That day shall not come, except 
there come a falling away first." " The 



WITH ROMANISM. 



205 



Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter 
times, some shall depart from the faith" 
Accordingly, this apostate power is represented 
as rearing itself " in the temple of God or 
in more literal language, in the church. Now 
all this applies exactly to the Papacy, and to 
no other great wicked power that has appeared 
"in the latter times." It can apply to no 
mere civil power, because it is to spring up 
in the church, and to sustain the character of 
an apostasy. 

Next, it is said of this power, that "it 
opposeth." And have not the Popes opposed 
God and his church ; excommunicating, an- 
athematizing, persecuting, and destroying by 
crusades, inquisitions, horrid massacres, and 
executions, those sincere Christians, who pre- 
ferred the word and authority of God to those 
of men ? If Pagan Rome hath slain its thou- 
sands of God's faithful people, Papal Rome 
hath slain its ten thousands. 

Again, the power spoken of by Paul " ex- 
alteth itself above all that is called God, or is 
worshiped." So the Pope of Rome hath 
exalted himself above all the powers of earth, 
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whether ecclesiastical or civil, claiming to 
dispose of all things according to his pleasure, 
not only in the church universal, but through- 
out the world. He has prostrated kings and 
emperors at his feet ; deposing some, and 
advancing others ; obliging them to wait bare- 
headed at his gate ; treading in some instances 
on their necks ; and giving away their crowns 
to whomsoever he would. He hath exalted 
himself above even the Almighty ; demanding, 
in numerous instances, what God has forbidden, 
and forbidding what God has required, — as- 
suming, by his mere Jiat, to make right wrong, 
and wrong right. 

" He, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, 
showing himself that he is God" The Pope, 
at his inauguration, sitteth upon the high altar, 
in St. Peter's church at Rome, and in that 
position receiveth adoration. He claims to 
possess the attributes and to exercise the 
prerogatives of God. He suffers himself to 
be styled "our Lord God, the Pope," — 
"another God upon the earth," — "king of 
kings, and lord of lords." He suffers it to 
be said in his ear, " The power of the Pope 



WITH ROMANISM. 



207 



is greater than all created power, extending 
to things celestial, terrestrial and infernal" 
" The Pope doeth whatsoever he listeth ; 
even things unlawful, and is more than God." 
By such blasphemies, not only allowed, but 
approved, encouraged, and rewarded, the 
Popes of Rome have fulfilled in themselves 
that terrible prediction on which I .here 
remark. 

Again ; the coming of this power is said to 
be " after the working of Satan ; with all 
power, and signs, and lying wonders, and 
with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in 
them that perish." We have here an obvious 
prediction of the numberless false miracles of 
the church of Rome, and her manifold impo- 
sitions and deceptions ; to all which I have 
referred in a previous chapter. The whole 
history of this church is little better than a 
history of the " deceivableness of unrighteous- 
ness imposing upon tjie deluded people her 
false doctrines, false miracles, false books, 
false relics, and her thousand false and un- 
founded pretensions. In these ways she has 
fulfilled, not only the prediction above quoted, 



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but part of the other which I proposed to 
consider with it. " Giving heed to seducing 
spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies 
in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared 
with a hot iron." If the apostle had been 
describing, instead of predicting, the imposi- 
tions and corruptions of the Romish church, 
he could hardly have^ done it with greater 
accuracy. 

" Forbidding to marry, and cvmmanding^to 
abstain from meats, which God hath created 
to be received with thanksgiving." Here 
again are other obvious characteristics of 
Rome. Her clergy are all of them forbidden 
to marry ; and so are the multitudes of her 
monks and nuns. And it is as much the law 
of all monks to abstain from meats, as from 
marriage. Some never eat any flesh ; others, 
only of certain kinds, and on certain days. 
Frequent fastings are the rule, the order, the 
boast of the monks, ajid indeed of the whole 
church of Rome. 

There is still another characteristic of 
Paul's " man of sin," and " son of perdition," 
which applies exactly to the church of Rome, 



WITH EOMANXSM. 



209 



and to nothing else. There was something 
in the apostolic times which hindered its ap- 
jKarance, and would hinder for a time, till it 
was taken out of the way. 2 Thess. 2 : 7. 
What was this temporary hindrance? We 
have the authority of the best commentators, 
ancient and modern, for saying, that this hin- 
drance was the Pagan Roman empire. The 
mystery of iniquity was at work in the church, 
even in the days of Paul. There were then 
visible the workings of superstition, pride, 
ostentation, and worldly ambition. But there 
was little opportunity far these lurking evils 
to prevail and predominate, so long as the 
church was Icept down by the persecuting 
Pagan emperors. But just as soon as the 
heavy hand of persecution was removed, and 
the predicted hindrance was taken out of the 
way, they sprang up with a luxuriant and 
resistless growth. And they ceased not to 
flourish and prevail, till they ripened into that 
horrid product of imposition and usurpation 
which we now call Popery, but which the 
apostle predicted as " the man of sin. 55 



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The other prophetic passages in which 
there is, I suppose, a manifest reference to the 
church of Rome, are in the thirteenth and 
seventeenth chapters of the Revelation. In 
the beginning of the thirteenth chapter, John 
sees a beast rise up out of the sea, or the 
abyss, having seven heads and ten horns. 
At length, one of its heads was, as it were, 
wounded to death ; but its deadly wound 
was healed ; and all the world wondered after 
the beast. 

In the eleventh verse of the same chapter, 
John sees another beast coming up out of the 
earth, having two horns as a lamb, but speak- 
ing like a dragon. This second beast appears 
in close alliance with the first ; exercising all 
the power of the first beast before him, and 
causing all them that dwell on the earth to 
worship the first beast, whose deadly w 7 ound 
w T as healed. 

Perfectly analogous to the visions in this 
chapter are those in the seventeenth, although 
the imagery is somewhat changed. Here 
again appears the beast, with its seven heads 
and ten horns ; but instead of another beast in 



WITH ROMANISM. 



211 



alliance with it, there is a scandalous, adulter- 
ous woman sitting upon it, arrayed in the 
most gorgeous apparel, and holding " in her 
hand a golden cup, full of her abominations 
and filthiness of her fornications." 

The beast in these two chapters is the 
same ; and the adulterous woman seems to 
bear the same relation to it in the latter chap- 
ter, that the second beast does in the for- 
mer. What, then, does the imagery denote ? 
What power is signified by the beast? And 
what by the second beast in the thirteenth 
chapter, and the adulterous woman in the 
seventeenth ? 

There can be no doubt, I think, that the 
beast, in these two chapters, signifies Rome, — 
the civil, secular power of Rome. It is very 
similar to the fourth beast of Daniel, which, 
we have before seen, signifies Rome. Its 
seven heads denote ihe seven hills on which 
the city of Rome was built ; as also the seven 
forms of government under which, at different 
periods, the civil power of Rome was exer- 
cised. The ten horns, as in the fourth beast 
of Daniel, signify the ten kingdoms, into 



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which the Western Roman Empire was 
ultimately divided. 

At the time of the visions recorded in these 
chapters, this beast was' a great, idolatrous, 
persecuting power, living under its sixth, or 
imperial head. The beast seemed to have 
received a deadly wound in its head, when its 
idolatries and persecutions ceased, and the 
empire became professedly Christian. But 
at length its deadly wound was healed, and 
the beast revived in all its former terror and 
power. This reviving took place, when Papal 
Rome relapsed into the gross abominations of 
its Pagan predecessor, and even exceeded 
them ; — when Rome again became persecut- 
ing and idolatrous. 

The same events are set forth, though by a 
different phraseology, in the seventeenth 
chapter. The beast is there described as one 
" that was, and is not, and yet is" It was 
an idolatrous, persecuting power ; or in other 
words, a beast. It ceased to be such an one 
for a time, when the empire became profess- 
edly Christian. But after a season, its beastly 
character revived. It became a beast again. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



213 



Or, as in the previous chapter, its deadly 
wound was healed. 

The seven heads of the beast are more 
fully described in the seventeenth chapter, 
than in the thirteenth. " These," says the 
interpreting angel, " are seven kings," or 
forms of government, " five of which are fallen, 
and one is, and the other is not yet come. 
And when he cometh, he must continue a 
short space. And the beast that was, and is 
not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, 
and goeth into perdition," (verses 10, 11.) 
At the time of this vision, five forms of Ro- 
man government had passed away, viz., those 
of kings, consuls, dictators, decemvirs, and 
military tribunes. The sixth, that of the 
emperors, was then in existence. When this 
was subverted, Rome became a dukedom, 
subject to the Exarch of Ravenna. This 
was the seventh form of government ; which 
continued, till the secular authority passed into 
the hands of the Popes. The secular domin- 
ion of the Popes constitutes the eighth form 
of government, which "is of the seven, and 
goeth into perdition." 

19 



214 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



I make these remarks for the purpose of 
showing what is to be understood by the 
beast of the Apocalypse. It is the civil or 
secular power of Rome, which, after the 
deadly wound had been healed, was admin- 
istered (as it has been for the last thousand 
years) by the Popes. 

What, then, are we to understand by the 
second beast of the thirteenth chapter, and the 
adulterous woman of the seventeenth, both of 
which appear in such close alliance with the 
beast ? I answer, these denote, as it seems to 
me, the spiritual, the ecclesiastical power of 
Rome, which is closely allied to its secular 
power, though in nature very distinct from it. 
The inscription on the forehead of the woman 
is " Mystery, Babylon the great and she 
is expressly said to represent " that great city, 
which reign eth over the kings of the earth." 
She (like the second beast of the thirteenth 
chapter) is Rome, in its spiritual, ecclesiastical 
state. The other beast, we have seen, is 
Rome, in its civil, secular state. So that the 
visions of the two chapters, taken as a whole, 
bring before us Popery, in both the aspects in 



WITH ROMANISM. 



215 



ivhich it may be viewed; — in the exercise 
both of its civil and ecclesiastical powers. 

And now, if we look into the distinctive 
traits or characteristics of the symbols de 
scribed in these two chapters, we find that 
they apply most exactly to the Popes of Rome. 
Thus, there was given unto the beast " a 
mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. 
And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against 
God, to blaspheme his name, and his taber- 
nacle, and them that dwell in heaven," 
(chap. 13: 5,6.) In the other chapter, the 
same beast is described as full of the names 
of blasphemy. After what has been said, I 
scarcely need add another word, to show how 
perfectly all this has been fulfilled in the 
Popes. What greater blasphemy can be 
conceived, than for a mortal man to appropri- 
ate to himself the titles, attributes, preroga- 
tives, and worship of the Supreme Being, — 
to claim to be the sovereign of all kingdoms, 
the Judge of all controversies, the vicegerent 
of Christ, the very God upon the earth ! 

It was also given to the beast "to make 
war with the saints, and to overcome them." 



216 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



The mystical harlot is moreover represented 
as being "drunken with the blood of^ the 
saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of 
Jesus" That all this has been dreadfully 
fulfilled in the Romish church, was shown at 
length in my last chapter. Mr. Mede esti- 
mates that in the wars upon the Albigenses 
and Waldenses, a full million of these poor 
Christians perished in France alone. Pope 
Julian was the means of destroying not less 
than 200,000 Christians. There perished by 
the Jesuits, in the course of thirty years, 
900,000. In the Netherlands, the Duke of 
Alva boasted that he had destroyed 36,000, 
by the hands of the common hangman. The 
whole number murdered by him is set down 
by Grotius, at 100,000. In the massacre on 
St. Bartholomew's day, not less than 100,000 
were murdered in France. In the Irish mas- 
sacre, there fell at least 150,000. The 
Inquisition, I have before stated, effected the 
destruction of a million of human beings. 
But I need not proceed with this terrible 
detail. Drunk with the blood of the 

SAINTS AND OF THE MARTYRS OF JeSUS, 



WITH ROMANISM. 



should be the inscription on the forehead of 
every Pope of Rome. 

The almost universal influence and authority 
of the Popes are set forth, in the visions before 
us, in language like the following: "And 
power was given unto him (the beast) over 
all kindreds, and tongues, and nations; and 
all that dwell upon the earth shall worship 
him, whose names are not written in the book 
of life." It issaid, also, of the second beast, 
that £i he causeth the earth, and them that 
dwell therein, to worship the first beast, 
whose deadly wound was healed." 

I have spoken already of the false miracles 
of the Romish church. These are plainly 
predicted in the visions before us. The 
second beast, we are told, " doeth great icon- 
dcrs, so that he maketh fire to come from 
heaven on the earth, in the sight of men. 
And he deceiveth them that dwell on the 
earth, by means of those miracles which he 
had power to do in the sight of the beast." 

The idolatries of the Romish church are 
strikingly exhibited in the character of the 
mystical woman, in the seventeenth chapter. 
19* 



218 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



Throughout the prophecies of the Old Testa- 
ment, the sin of idolatry is set forth under 
the image of harlotry; and the inscription 
on the forehead of this audacious, impious 
woman is, " The mother of harlots and abom- 
inations of the earth" The second beast, 
in the thirteenth chapter, is also represented 
as inculcating, not only the manufacture, but 
the worship of images. (Verses 14, 15.) 

The wealth of the church of Rome, and 
the gorgeous, imposing character of her wor- 
ship, are seen in the attire of this mystical 
harlot. She " was arrayed in purple and 
scarlet color, and decked with gold, and 
precious stones, and pearls, and held in her 
hand a golden cup, full of the filthiness of her 
fornications." 

It is said of the ten horns (symbolizing the 
ten kingdoms into which the Roman empire 
was divided), that "they have one mind, and 
give their power and strength unto the beast " 
This was remarkably fulfilled for a long course 
of years, down to the time of the Reformation. 
And with regard to the most of these king- 
doms, it continues to be fulfilled to the present 



WITH ROMANISM. 



219 



day. They " give their power and strength 
unto the beast," and are enlisted together for 
the support of Popery. 

The followers of the beast are represented 
by John as " receiving a mark in their right 
hands, or in their foreheads, that no man might 
buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the 
name of the beast." And the votaries of the 
Romish church are all marked men. They 
mark themselves continually with the sign of 
the cross, and with the other peculiarities of 
their pompous ritual. And in numerous 
instances, the common intercourse and busi- 
ness of life has been prohibited, except with 
those who had received the mark. At the 
bidding of the Pope, the emperor Frederic 
II issued an edict, by which no dissenter from 
Popery " could make a will, or receive any 
property by succession or inheritance." In 
the year 1487, Pope Innocent III enacted, 
that " Catholics might seize upon and possess 
the goods of heretics ; that if bound to them 
by contract, it must not be fulfilled ; that if 
indebted to them, they must not pay debts. 
William the Conqueror 3 in the fulness of his 



220 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



devotion to Rome, decreed, that "no man 
should buy or sell, who refused allegiance to 
the apostolic see." Pope Alexander III 
prohibited all good Catholics from having any 
intercourse with the Albigenses and Wal- 
denses, — from purchasing any thing of them, 
or selling any thing to them. Pope Martin 
V enjoined on his subjects, that they should 
not " permit the heretics to have houses in 
their districts ;" and that the heretics " should 
not enter into contracts, or carry on commerce, 
or enjoy the comforts of humanity with Chris- 
tians." So remarkably has the prediction* 
been fulfilled, that "no man might buy or sell, 
save he that had the mark, or the name of 
the beast." 

We have seen that the saints were to be 
given into the hands of " the little horn " of 
Daniel " until a time, times, and the dividing 
of time ;" which indicates a period of three 
years and a half, or forty and two months. 
So the beast of the Apocalypse is to continue 
forty and two months ; showing that this 
beast is identical with " the little horn ;" 
which we have before shown, is significant of 
Popery. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



221 



In view of the many instances, in which 
the predictions which have been considered 
have been literally fulfilled in the church of 
Rome, it cannot, I think, be doubted to whom 
these remarkable visions refer. They can 
refer to but one thing. The Popes of Rome, 
in their secular and spiritual powers, are not 
only " the little horn " of Daniel, and " the 
man of sin " of Paul, but the beast of the 
Apocalypse, — the " mother of harlots and the 
abominations of the earth" 

And if all this is true, it furnishes a sufficient 
reason, were there no other, why the people 
of God should come out from the apostate 
church of Rome, and have no more fellowship 
v or communion with her. 



222 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



CHAPTER IX. 

Ninth reason why the people of God should have no fellow- 
ship with the church of Rome — The opinions which have 
been entertained by wise and good men respecting it. 

Another reason for withdrawing from the 
church of Rome, on which T must briefly 
touch, grows out of the manner in which this 
church has been regarded and spoken of by- 
some of the best and wisest men, during the 
last seven hundred years. Such men, to be 
sure, are not infallible ; still, when they give 
a united testimony in respect to any impor- 
tant point, such point becomes entitled, on 
that very account, to grave and thoughtful 
consideration. Now the men to whom I 
have referred, have decided, with scarcely, a 
dissenting voice, that Rome is Babylon, — the 
mother of harlots ; and that the Pope of Rome 
is the Antichrist of the New Testament. 

Peter Waldo, in the 12th century, says, 
" The church of Rome, because she hath 



WITH ROMANISM. 



223 



renounced the true faith of Christ, is the 
whore of Babylon, and that barren tree, which 
Christ himself hath cursed, and commanded 
to be rooted up." We find the same senti- 
ment in a creed of the Waldenses, published 
by the Magdeburg Centuriators. 

Almeric and Oliva, in the 13th century, 
denounced the " Pope as Antichrist, and the 
prelates as members and ministers of Anti- 
christ." 

The celebrated Robert Greathead, bishop 
of Lincoln, who died about the middle of the 
13th century, undertook to prove, in his dying 
discourses, that " the Pope was a heretic, and 
deservedly called Antichrist." 

Both Dante and Petrarch, satirists of the 
14th century, " wrote freely against the tem- 
poral dominion of the Pope, treating Rome as 
Babylon, and the Pope as Antichrist." 

"Formerly Rome, — noiv Babylon, — false 
and guilty ! Hell of the living ! It will be a 
great miracle, if Christ is not angry with thee 
at last." Petrarch," torn. 4, p. 149. 

The renowned Wickliffe, also of the 14th 
century, regarded the Pope and Popery in 



224 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



the same light. The burden of Wickliffe's 
preaching and writing, during the latter years 
of his life, was, that the Pope is Antichrist. 

In the following century, the Lollards and 
Hussites bore the same testimony, declaring 
the church of Rome to be in a state of settled 
apostasy, and the Pope to be Antichrist. 

Savonarola, an Italian reformer of the 15th 
century, did not hesitate to affirm " that Rome 
was a second Babylon ; and he had many to 
support him in this opinion." 

The same, it is well known, was the united 
testimony of the celebrated Reformers of the 
16th century. Not only Luther and Zuingle, 
and the other reformers of Germany and Swit- 
zerland, but those also of England, — the 
venerable founders of the present English 
Episcopal church, such as Cranmer, Jewell, 
Ridley, and Latimer, all rejected the church 
of Rome as an apostate, and her bishop as 
Antichrist. It was on this ground that they 
justified their separation from Rome, and 
defended themselves, when attacked, from the 
charge of schism. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



225 



And, with few exceptions, this has been the 
judgment and the language of Protestants, 
ever since. I say, with few exceptions ; for 
there are a few, in our own age, who, recre- 
ant to every principle of Protestantism, are 
looking with wistful eyes towards the church 
of Rome, and are beo-innino; to hail her as a 
sister church. Let such defend themselves, 
as they can, from the sin of schism, in sepa- 
rating from the old " mother of harlots," or 
in continuing separate for another hour. To 
be consistent, they should return at once (as 
it seems likely they will do very soon) into 
her vile bosom. 



20 



226 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



CHAPTER X. 

Tenth reason why the people of God should have no fellow- 
ship with Rome — Her present hostility to the church, and 
to its efforts for the heathen. 

Still another reason why the people of 
God should have no connection with the 
church of Rome, grows out of the jnanner in 
which she regards and treats the church of 
Christ, and its missions to the heathen. We 
have seen how the Popes of Rome have 
regarded and treated the church in past ages. 
They have hated it, and rejected it, hurling 
after it their most furious anathemas, and 
waging upon it a war of extermination. And 
though, by the force of circumstances, their 
rage against the church may be somewhat 
restrained, their feelings towards it are not at 
all changed. They hate it as cordially as 
ever. They anathematize it as freely. And 
if the pressure of circumstances was taken off, 
beyond all question, they would waste and 
persecute it as terribly. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



227 



The institution of the Jesuits, with all its 
diabolical casuistry, — with its secret instruc- 
tions and rules, is now in full vigor and op- 
eration. The maxims of the order still are, 
No faith to be 'kept with heretics ; — all means 
lawful, the tendency of which is to promote the 
religion of Rome, and to distress its opposers. 
The Pope still claims the power of dispens- 
ing with the obligation of promises and oaths ; 
of releasing individuals from their contracts, 
and subjects from their allegiance ; and of 
granting indulgence to commit any crime, the 
design of which shall be to promote his own 
interests. A day is still set apart every year 
at Rome, for the purpose of excommunicating 
and anathematizing all the heretics. The 
Pope, on this occasion, is clothed in scarlet, 
and stands upon a high throne, the better to 
be seen by all the people. The cardinals 
stand around him, each one holding a lighted 
candle in his hand. The reading commences 
thus : " In the name of the Almighty God, 
Father, Son, and /Holy Ghost, and by the 
authority of St. Peter and St. Paul, and by 
our own ; we excommunicate and pronounce 



228 NO FELLOWSHIP 

accursed, all Hussites, Wickliffites, Lutherans, 
Calvinists, Huguenots, Anabaptists, and all 
apostates from the faith, and all who know- 
ingly keep and read their books," he, &lc* 
When the bull of excommunication has been 
read, the candles are instantly put out and 
thrown away ; thus signifying that all heretics 
(among whom are included all Protestants) 
are hurled away from the church, their light 
being extinguished, and they given over to 
the devil. 

It was shown, in a previous chapter, that 
every Romish bishop is bound, by his oath, 
to persecute and exterminate heretics. " To 
the utmost of my power, I will observe the 
Pope's commands, and will make others ob- 
serve them. I will impugn and persecute all 
heretics, and all rebels to my lord the Pope." 
It was also shown, that in the Romish Com- 
mentaries and Systems of Theology now in 
use, the same persecuting principles are incul- 
cated, which were so terribly enforced in ages 
past ; and that the reason assigned why per- 
secution is not again attempted is, not that 
the thing is wrong in itself, but that it cannot 



WITH ROMANISM. 



229 



be done, without hazard and disturbance to 
the church. " The good must tolerate the 
evil, when it is so strong that it cannot be 
redressed, without danger and disturbance of 
the whole church. But when ill men (be they 
heretics or other malefactors) can be punished, 
without disturbance and hazard of the good, 
they may and ought, by public authority, 
either spiritual or temporal, to be chastised or 

EXECUTED." 

One of the most fearful manifestations of 
hostility to God and his church, on the part 
of the Romanists at the present day, consists 
in their determined opposition to Protestant 
missions. Wherever the missionary of the 
cross plants himself, whether among the be- 
nighted Africans, or the American Indians, 
or the idolaters of China, or the nominal 
Christians of the east, or the islanders of the 
Pacific ocean, he is almost sure to be encoun- 
tered by the priests of Rome. Wherever he 
goes they are close upon his track, to coun- 
teract his efforts, to defeat his designs, to 
belie his religion, and turn aside the poor 
heathen, if possible, from the faith of the gos- 
20* 



30 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



pel. It is in efforts such as these, that the 
emissaries of Rome discover most clearly their 
character and origin. They show themselves 
to be from beneath ; and to be in fact, as 
well as in name, Antichrist. They are in 
close alliance with the Dragon of the Apoca- 
lypse, that "old serpent, who is the Devil 
and Satan," in promoting his designs, and 
opposing the progress of truth and holiness 
*n the earth. 



WITH ROMANISM, 



231 



CHAPTER XI. 

Eleventh and last reason why the people of God should have 
no fellowship with the church of Rome — Her terrible end. 

I urge but another reason why the people 
of God should have no connection with the 
church of Rome, and this is the terrible end 
to which she is destined. On this point there 
can be no mistake, if we have correctly in- 
terpreted the prophetical writings : For in 
these holy writings, God has most clearly and 
awfully portrayed the destruction that awaits 
her. 

We have seen that "the little horn" of 
Daniel's fourth beast is a striking symbol of 
the Papacy. „ But with what terrific grandeur 
does the prophet set forth the judgment of 
" the little horn." " I beheld," says he, " till 
the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient 
of days did sit, whose garment was white as 
snow, and the hair of his head like the pure 
wool. His throne was like the fiery flame, 



232 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery 
stream issued and came forth from before 
him ; thousand thousands ministered unto him ; 
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood 
before him. The judgment was set, and the 
books were opened. I beheld then, because 
of the voice of the great words which the 
horn spake ; I beheld even till the beast was 
slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the 
burning flame " In interpreting this part of 
the vision, the angel who conversed with 
Daniel, says, " The judgment shall sit, and 
they shall take away his dominion, 5 ' — the 
dominion of the little horn, — " to consume and 
destroy it unto the end." Dan-. 7 : 9 — 11, 26. 

Another of the representatives of Popery, 
in the prophetical writings, is Paul's " man 
of sin," and "son of perdition." But of this 
it is said expressly, " whom the Lord shall 
consume with the spirit of his mouth, and 
destroy with the brightness of his coming" 
2 Thess. 2 : 8. Of the beast of the Apoca- 
lypse, — another symbol of Popery, — it is also 
said, " He that leadeth into captivity shall 
go into captivity. He that killeth with the 



WITH ROMANISM. 



233 



sword must be Jcilled with the sword." John 
further tells us that he saw " the beast taken, 
and with him the false prophet that wrought 
miracles before him, with which he deceived 
them that had received the mark of the beast, 
and that worshiped his image, and these 
both were cast into a lake of fire burning with 
brimstone." John also assures us, that the 
ten horns of the beast shall come, at length, 
to hate the whore who sits upon it, "and 
shall make her desolate and naked, and shall 
eat her flesh, and burn her with fire 

After these things, John " heard a great 
voice of much people in heaven, saying, Al- 
leluia ; salvation, and glory, and honor, and 
power, unto the Lord our God, for true and 
righteous are his judgments ; for he hath 
judged the great whore, which did corrupt the 
earth with her fornications, and hath avenged 
the blood of his servants at her hand. And 
again they said, Alleluia; and her smoke 
rose up for ever and ever." 

Indeed, that great Babylon, the fall and 
ruin of which are so pathetically described 
in the 18th chapter of the Revelation, I con- 



234 



NC FELLOWSHIP 



ceive to be none other than the poiver and 
the church of Rome. It is idolatrous Rome, 
which has made the nations drunk with the 
wine of her fornication. It is Rome, that 
has clothed herself in purple and scarlet, and 
decked herself with gold, and precious stones, 
and pearls. It is Rome, in whose murderous 
hands is found the blood of prophets and of 
saints, and of all that were slain upon the 
earth. It is Rome, therefore, on whom all the 
predicted " plagues shall come in one day ; 
death, and mourning, and famine; and she 
shall be utterly burnt with fire. For strong 
is the Lord God that judgeth her." 

I know there are some Protestants, who 
dissent from the painful conclusion to which 
these predictions lead us, and cling to the 
hope that the church of Rome is yet to be 
reformed and restored. In the progress of 
things, she is to be purified from her abom- 
inations, and take her stand, at length, among 
the ransomed churches of Christ. But I 
must acknowledge that I have no such ex- 
pectations. That individuals of her com- 
munion will be reclaimed and rescued, I have 



WITH ROMANISM. 



235 



no reason to doubt. My hope is that they 
may be converted, in great and increasing 
numbers. But that the Romish church, as a 
body, is to be reformed, and restored to her 
ancient standing in the Christian community, 
I see no reason to believe. 

In the first place, how can she be, unless 
she renounces, altogether, her claim to infal- 
libility, and abjures and condemns her past 
errors and abominations ; and this would be 
to repudiate herself. Other churches that 
have been in errors, may repent and reform. 
They may acknowledge their offences, and 
humbly turn from them. But the church of 
Rome cannot do this. She has been in no 
errors. She has committed no offences. 
With her long array of infallible Popes, and 
Fathers, and Councils, she has done nothing 
for which to sorrow or repent. The church 
of England may acknowledge her fault for 
having persecuted the Puritans ; and the first 
settlers of New England may acknowledge 
theirs, for having, in some instances, perse- 
cuted one another. But the church of Rome 
must justify and defend all her terrible per- 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



secutions. She must hold herself committed 
(as we have seen that she does) to repeat the 
same, in the like circumstances, if it can be 
done without hazard and disturbance to the 
church. 

But this leads me to remark, secondly, that 
the church of Rome manifests no disposition 
to reform ; — at least, to reform interiorly and 
radically. She can put on, if necessary, a 
more decent outward appearance. She can 
change her exterior, to meet circumstances. 
But her doctrines are as corrupt as they ever 
w r ere. Her pretensions are as lofty and as- 
suming. Her moral principles are as unsound. 
Her deadly hostility to the cause of Christ 
continues unabated, and is manifesting itself, 
in every form of opposition to truth and holi- 
ness, that diabolical ingenuity can suggest. 

And finally, #s I have shown, the Scrip- 
tures forbid all hope, that the church of 
Rome, as a body, is to be purified and 
restored. The little horn of Daniel is to be, 
not converted, but terribly destroyed. Paul's 
" man of sin" is to be, not converted, but 
" consumed with the breath of Christ's 



WITH ROMANISM. 



237 



mouth, and destroyed with the brightness of 
his coming." And the same is true of the 
beast, the Babylon, the false prophet, the 
infamous harlot, of the Apocalypse. If the 
Scriptures referred to are true, and if we 
rightly understand them, then certainly the 
end of this terrible antichristian power is to 
be, not reformation, but destruction. It shall 
come to its end, and there shall be none to 
help it. It shall be suddenly destroyed, and 
that without remedy. In this view, how 
appropriate and benevolent is the warning of 
the Saviour, " Come out of her, my people, 
that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that 
ye receive not of her plagues." 



CONCLUSION. 

I may conclude this discussion, with re- 
peating what was said at the commencement : 
It has been no part of my object to excite a 
prejudice against individual members of the 
church of Rome ; and more especially those 
who reside among ourselves. We may judge 
21 



238 



NO FELLOWSHIP 



the system, without judging and condemning 
the individuals who adhere to it. We may 
set forth the enormities of the system, and 
describe its end, without awakening feelings 
of hatred and indignation, either in our own 
breasts, or those of others, against those poor, 
blinded, deluded victims, who have fallen 
beneath its relentless power. 

We will, indeed, keep an eye upon these, 
that they shall not ensnare the unwary, and 
multiply victims like themselves ; — that they 
shall not propagate, to our injury, their 
accursed system upon our shores. Well 
knowing the pernicious political principles of 
the Romanists, and their dangerous political 
as well as spiritual connections, and the mor- 
tal injuries they have inflicted upon every 
land over which they have prevailed ; we 
will guard the citadel of our republic, and not 
suffer the destroyer to get possession of its 
walls. And this is an object towards which 
the eyes of our citizens must be vigilantly 
turned ; as most assuredly it is one on which 
the hearts of our enemies beyond the waters, 
are most earnestly set. 



WITH ROMANISM. 



239 



Still, we will not drive the poor, homeless, 
friendless emigrant from our borders. Nor 
will we hate and persecute him, while dwell- 
in £ amon£ us. We will not treat him as the 
Waldenses and Huguenots were treated in 
France; or the English Protestants in Ire- 
land ; or the poor Saltzburgers in Germany. 
We will indulge no feelings towards him but 
those of benevolence and pity. We will 
extend to him, not only the protection of our 
laws, and the blessings of civil and religious 
freedom, but much more than these. He 
shall have our sympathies and our prayers. 
We will patiently labor and (if need be) 
suffer, and make sacrifices for his good. 

Our hope is, that many of the present gen- 
eration of Romanists are to be converted. 
Our belief is, that God is sending great num- 
bers of them across the waters, and planting 
them in this land of Bibles and Sabbaths, for 
this very purpose. Let us aim, then, to be 
workers together with God in this important 
matter. Let us do what we can, to disarm 
the Catholic of his prejudices, to secure his 
confidence, to satisfy him that we are, not his 



240 NO FELLOWSHIP WITH ROMANISM. 

enemies, but his friends. Let us do what we 
can to instruct and persuade him ; to win him 
by a kind and holy example ; to lead him in 
humble submission to the Saviour ; and thus 
rescue him effectually, for time and eternity, 
from the iron grasp of the last grand enemy 
of God and man. 



APPENDIX. 



NO. I. 

As my youthful readers may not be familiar with 
the reasons, why the books called the Apocrypha 
(which are sometimes bound up between the Old and 
New Testaments) should not be regarded as part of 
the Bible ; it may be proper to append some of these 
reasons here. 

L. These books are not found in the Hebrew Bible. 
They were written originally, not in Hebrew, but in 
Greek ; — a language which was not known among 
the Jews, till long after the canon of the Old Testa- 
ment was closed. 

2. These Apocryphal books have never been re- 
ceived into the sacred Canon by the Jews. 

3. They are never quoted, as of Divine authority, 
by the writers of the New Testament. 

4. These books were not received as canonical by 
the Christian Fathers, but were expressly declared to 
be apocryphal. In the various catalogues of the 
Fathers, mention is made of all the received books of 
the Old Testament, while either nothing is said of 
the Apocryphal books, or they are referred to as 
having no authority. Indeed, until the time of the 

21* 



242 



APPENDIX. 



Council of Trent (near the middle of the 16th cen- 
tury), the most learned and judicious of the Catholic 
writers adhered to the opinion of the ancient Fathers, 
and declared against the canonical authority of the 
Apocryphal books. It was by the Council of Trent 
that these books were first adopted and canonized in 
the Romish church. 

5. If there were norther argument against these 
books, the internal evidence is decisive. They con- 
tain many things which are fabulous, self-contradic- 
tory, absurd, and incredible. They contradict, in 
several instances, the canonical Scriptures, and are 
inconsistent, often, with of facts in profane history. 

In judging of these books, I feel disposed to award 
to them all the praise to which they can be considered 
as justly entitled. They may be highly valuable, as 
ancient Jewish writings, which throw light on the 
phraseology of Scripture, and upon the history and 
manners of the East; but certainly, they have no 
claim to be admitted into the sacred canon, or to be 
regarded as of divine authority. 

NO. II. 

In Vol. I, of the " Index of Expurgated Books," 
published in 1607, we find the following propositions 
rejected as heretical : 

" 1. Sins are remitted to the believer in Christ. 

"2. The believer in Christ shall never die eternally. 

" 3. The Holy Spirit is received by faith. 

"4. Our hearts are purified by faith. 



APPENDIX. 



243 



" 5. God forbids images to be made, that we may- 
adore them, and bow down ourselves before them. 

" 6. There is no righteousness in us. 

" 7. We are justified by faith in Christ. 

" 8. Christ is our righteousness. 

" 9. There is no justifying righteousness by the 
works of the law. 

" 10. There is none just before God. 

" 11. Believers are about to enter into their rest. 

" 12. We are not set free (from sin) on account of 
our works. 

" 13. God desires or wills all men to repent. 

" 1-4. Repentance is the gift of God. 

" 15. The word of God alone is to be obeyed. 

" 16. Each man may have his own wife." 

A church which publicly condemns such proposi- 
tions, and declares them heretical, must have erred 
mortally in point of doctrine. 

NO. III. 

Of the principle and practice here considered, we 
shall have numerous illustrations as we proceed. At 
present, I give only one, and that in the language of 
an eye-witness. " I can give you on this subject," 
says the writer (the subject of pious frauds), " the 
result of a conference at which I was present, some 
time ago, at Blois*in France, upon the occasion of 
the removal of some relics, kept in the parish of St. 
Victor, two leagues distant from that city. These 
relics were much out of order, in old wooden cases 
that were worm-eaten and rotten with age, which 
hindered them from being carried in procession, or 
exposed to public view. The plan was, to have them 



244 



APPENDIX. 



more modishly accommodated and removed into new 
cases. To this end, a petition was forwarded to the 
Bishop, who sent his order to the arch-deacon of 
Blois, for that purpose. The arch-deacon assembled 
several of the clergy, to consult about the precautions 
to be observed in the removal. The resolution was, 
that, to avoid the scandal which might happen, if 
nothing should chance to be found in the old cases, or 
only some few bones, the ceremony of removal should 
not be performed publicly, but as privately as possible. 
It was further resolved, if it should chance that noth- 
ing were found in the cases, to maintain peremptorily, 

that THE BODIES OF THE SAINTS WERE THERE WHOLE 

and entire. And to allay somehow the scruples 
as to making such an assertion, one of the canons of 
St. Saviour's church of Blois, a man resolute but of 
small conscience, maintained, in presence of the 
assembly, that no difficulty ought to be felt in asserting 
such a thing, though wholly false. Because, in a 
case where the interest of the church was concerned, 
all manner of respects and sentiments were to be 
given up. The mysteries of the Catholics, he said, 
were not to be exposed to the raillery of the heretics, 
who would not fail to mock at them, so soon as they 
should understand that nothing had been found in the 
old cases of St. Victor, which for so long a time had 
been the object of the people's adoration. The arch- 
deacon heard all this discourse, without contradicting 
him in the least ; while the curate of the parish, as 
being the person most concerned in the case, returned 
him his most hearty thanks." 



APPENDIX. 



245 



NO. IV. 

The following description of the ceremony of bap- 
tizing bells is quoted from Dr. Brownlee, in his 
Letters to the Romish priests. " A gaudy procession 
comes into the church, with a priestly attire of motley 
colors, like some equipped buffoons for the stage. A 
god-father and god-mother stand up by the bell, and 
take the vows. The dumb thing is wetted in the 
form of a cross, and then crossed with holy chrism ; 
while the lips of the priest, taking the awful name of 
the Trinity in vain, baptize it in the appointed form. 
The priest then gives three strokes with the clapper. 
The god-parents do the same, pronouncing at this 
moment the name of the bell. This farce, — the 
disgrace of our enlightened age, — is made to subserve 
the cause of a more degrading superstition. The 
sound of these baptized bells, as your priests gravely 
teach, fails not to disperse devils lurking in the air, 
and make them scamper off with incredible celerity. 
Their sound also, as you farther teach, brings souls 
out of purgatory. All Saint's day is a great day of 
the ringing of baptized bells, thereby rescuing souls 
from purgatorial pains, and purging the atmosphere 
of devils." 

NO. V. 

The following is a translation of the Ode which was 
sung to the Ass : 

" The Ass did come from Eastern climes ; 
Heigh-ho, my Assy ! 
He's fair, and fit for the pack at all times ; 



246 



APPENDIX. 



Sing, father Ass, and you shall have grass, 
And hay, and straw too in plenty. 

" The Ass is slow, and lazy too ; 
Heigh-ho, my Assy ! 
But the whip and the spur will make him go ; 
Sing, father Ass, and you shall have grass, 
And straw, and hay too in plenty. 

" The Ass was horn and hred with long ears ; 
Heigh-ho, my Assy ! 
And now the Lord of Asses appears ; 
Grin, father Ass, and you shall get grass, 
And straw, and hay too in plenty. 

" The Ass excels the hind at a bound ; 
Heigh-ho, my Assy ! 
And faster trots than hare or hound ; 
Bray, father Ass, and you shall have grass, 
And straw, and hay too in plenty." 

The following is part of the " Litany of our Lady 
of Loretto." 

" We fly to thy patronage, holy Mother of God ! 
Despise not our petitions in our necessities, but de- 
liver us from all dangers, O ever blessed and glorious 
Virgin. Holy Mary, pray for us ; Holy Mother of 
God, pray for us ; Holy virgin of virgins, pray for us ; 
Mother of Christ, pray for us ; Mother of Divine 
grace, pray for us ; Mother most pure, pray for us ; 
Mother most chaste, pray for us ; Mother undefiled, 
pray for us ; Mother untouched, pray for us ; Mother 
most amiable, pray for us ; Mother most admirable, 
pray for us ; Mother of our Creator, pray for us ; 
Mother of our Redeemer, pray for us ; Virgin most 
prudent, pray for us ; Virgin most venerable, pray 
for us ; Virgin most renowned, pray for us ; Virgin 
most powerful, pray for us ; Virgin most merciful, 



APPENDIX. 



247 



pray for us ; Virgin most faithful, pray for us ; Mir- 
ror of jbstice, pray for us ; Seat of wisdom, pray for 
us ; Cause of our joy, pray for us; Spiritual vessel, 
pray for us ; Vessel of honor, pray for us ; Vessel of 
singular devotion, pray for us ; Mystical rose, pray 
for us; Tower of David, pray for us; Tower of 
ivory, pray for us ; House of gold, pray for us ; Ark 
of the covenant, pray for us ; Gate of heaven, pray 
for us ; Morning star, pray for us ; Health of the 
weak, pray for us ; Refuge of sinners, pray for us ; 
Comforter of the afflicted, pray for us ; Help of Chris- 
tians, pray for us ; Queen of angels, pray for us ; 
Queen of patriarchs, pray for us ; Queen of prophets, 
pray for us ; Queen of apostles, pray for us ; Queen 
of confessors, pray for us ; Queen of virgins, pray for 
us; Queen of all saints, pray for us." 



NO. VI. 

At the Diet of Nuremburgh, the Pope's Legate 
declared publicly : " The books of the heretics ought 
to be burned ; and the printers and sellers of them duly 
punished. There is no other way to suppress and 
extinguish the pernicious sect of Protestants." 

In the year 1515, the Lateran Council decreed, 
u that no book shall be printed without the bishop' s 
license; and that those who transgress this decree 
shall forfeit the whole impression (which shall be 
burned) , shall pay a line of one hundred ducats ; be 
suspended from their business for one year, and be 
excommunicated. ■ ' 

But to quote an authority nearer our own times : 
The present Pope, Gregory XVI issued a letter in 



248 



APPENDIX. 



1832, in which he speaks of " that most vile, detesta- 
ble, and never to be sufficiently execrated liberty of book- 
sellers, in publishing writings of whatever kind they 
please; — a liberty which some persons dare, with 
much violence of language, to demand and promote." 
" Clement XIII, our predecessor of happy memory, 
in his circular for the suppression of noxious books 
(i. e. Protestant books), says, "We must contend 
with energy, such as the subject requires, and with 
all our might, to exterminate the deadly mischief of so 
many books ; for the matter of error will never be 
effectually removed, unless the guilty elements of 
depravity be consumed in the fire." " Through all 
ages, the apostolic see has striven to condemn sus- 
pected and noxious (i. e. Protestant) books, and to 
wrest them forcibly out of men's hands. It is most 
clear, how rash, false and injurious to our apostolic 
see, and how fruitful of enormous evils to the Chris- 
tian public, is the doctrine of those, who not only reject 
the censorship of books, as too severe and burdensome, 
but even proceed to such a length of wickedness as 
to assert that it is contrary to the principles of equal 
justice ; and dare deny to the church the right of 
enacting and employing it." 

What liberty of the press can there ever be, under 
such a system? And is it not a maxim with the 
American people, that the liberty of the press is indis- 
pensable, not only to the security of freedom, but to 
the general diffusion and advancement of knowledge ? 



APPENDIX. 



249 



NO. VII. 

One of the persecutors of the Albigenses and Wal- 
denses, who wrote against them, bears the following 
testimony to their excellent moral character : ' ' These 
heretics are known by their manners and conversa- 
tion ; for they are orderly and modest in their man- 
ners and deportment. They avoid all appearance of 
pride in their dress ; they neither indulge in finery of 
attire, nor are they remarkable for being mean or 
ragged. They avoid commerce, that they may be 
free from deceit and falsehood. They gain their 
livelihood by manual industry as day laborers or 
mechanics, and their teachers are weavers or tailors. 
They are not anxious about amassing riches, but 
content themselves with the necessaries of life. They 
are chaste, temperate, and sober. They abstain 
from anger. Even when they work, they either 
learn or teach. In like manner, also, their women 
are very modest, avoiding backbiting, foolish jesting, 
and levity of speech ; especially abstaining from lies 
and profane oaths ; not so much as making use of the 
common asseverations, but contenting themselves 
with simply answering yes or no." The archbishop 
of Turin, who was also one of their persecutors, 
says, " Their heresy excepted, they generally live a 
purer life than other Christians. They are perfect, 
irreprehensible, and without reproach among men, 
addicting themselves, with all their might, to the 
service of God." 

22 



250 



APPENDIX. 



One of the most distressing persecutions which 
befel this excellent people /was visited upon a colony 
of them, who settled in an obscure corner of Italy, in 
the 14th century. Having lived here, secluded for 
about two hundred years, the vengeance of Rome at 
length found them out, and poured upon them the 
full vials of its wrath. Says a Romish historian, 
himself a persecutor, " Some had their throats cut ; 
others were sawn through the middle ; and others 
thrown from the top of a high cliff. All were cruelly, 
but deservedly, put to death. It was strange to hear 
of their obstinacy ; for while the father saw the son 
put to death, and the son his father, they not only 
gave no symptoms of grief, but said joyfully, that they 
would be angels of God. So much had the devil, to 
whom they had given themselves up as a prey, 
deceived them." 

NO. VIII. 

The principal instruments in this terrible persecu- 
tion were the soldiers (dragoons) and the clergy. 
When they came to any city or town, their first ob- 
ject was to waste the property of the Protestants, 
and devour their substance. <£ They next fell upon 
their persons ; on which occasion they employed the 
most vexatious cruelties, in order to compel the 
Protestants to apostatize from their religion. In 
some instances, they hung up. men and women, by 
the hair of their heads, or by their feet, to the ceiling 
of rooms. Others they would seize, and with a tun- 



APPENDIX. 



251 



nel pour wine down their throats, till they became 
intoxicated, hoping that in this state they might con- 
sent to the Romish faith. Some they beat with 
clubs, till they lost all power of resistance ; when 
they were dragged to the churches, and their forced 
presence was considered as an abjuration. Some 
they deprived of sleep for a whole week together, the 
persecutors relieving one another, so as to watch 
them day and night, and keep them awake, either 
by dashing water into their faces, or beating a kettle 
drum over their heads. When any were found con- 
fined to the bed with sickness, the soldiers would set 
drummers to beating around them, till the sufferers 
were crazed, and gave their word to abjure the Pro- 
testant faith. If to escape the tyranny of these bar- 
barians, any fled into the woods, they were hunted 
and shot at, like so many wild beasts. And whilst 
these things were doing in the provinces, the frontiers 
and ports were so closely watched, that comparatively 
few Protestants could escape out of the kingdom. 
They were strictly forbidden to depart, and if any 
attempted to make their escape, they were almost 
sure to be detected. Yet, after all this, Louis XIV 
was complimented, as having put an end to heresy 
in his dominions, without the necessity of resorting to 
force ! 

NO. IX. 

The first of the three kingdoms subverted by the 
Pope was the Exarchate of Ravenna. This belonged 
properly to the Greek Emperors ; but being taken 



252 



APPENDIX. 



by the Lombards, the Pope applied to Pepin, king of 
the Franks, to come and recover it. He came ac- 
cordingly, and forced the Lombards to surrender the 
Exarchate, and other territories. But instead of re- 
storing them to the Greek Emperor, Pepin was 
induced to bestow them on the Pope. Such was the 
commencement of the Pope's temporal dominions ; 
in the very constituting of which one of the ten horns 
was plucked up. 

The Lombards continuing to trouble the Pope, the 
latter invited Charlemagne, the son of Pepin, to 
come into Italy to his assistance. He came with a 
great army ; conquered the Lombards ; put an end to 
their kingdom ; and gave great part of their domin- 
ions to the Pope. Thus another of the ten horns was 
plucked up. 

The State of Pome, though subject to the Pope in 
things spiritual, was yet in things temporal governed 
by the senate and people, who retained many of their 
old privileges, and elected both the western emperor 
and the Popes. This falling into the hands of Char- 
lemagne, he permitted the Pope to hold it under him. 
And during the reign of Lewis, son of Charlemagne, 
it was wholly surrendered to the Pope. A third horn 
was thus plucked up ; and the territories acquired by 
these successive grants have since constituted the 
States of the Church. 




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